Rescued From My Own Planet
by Epiphany's Apocalypse
Summary: Gohan is the last remaining person on earth after a nuclear holocost. The Saiyajins defeated Freeza on their own and come back to check up on Goku. AU Post Apocoliptic, Gohan Centric.
1. ProLog

**Pro-log**

An old man approaches, his beard gray and matted, almost reaching the floor. His eyes hold a sparkle of both wisdom and wit. He folds his hands elegantly behind his back, gnarled fingers hidden from view for the moment. He speaks with a voice both quiet and important, "Everyone knows the story of Goku, a powerful fighter who won the world tournament several years in a row before taking his winnings and retiring into the mountains with his pregnant wife. Many a young fighter, eager to show his prowess, attempted to challenge Goku after the monumental trek to his secluded home. All of them came home soundly defeated, many of them however, also came home with a profound insight into their own lives and a higher respect for the art."

The old man inhales deeply before sighing. "His life was a simple one, away from the cities and the decadence they held within them. This secluded home, however, was not spared the destruction caused by such decadence."

The man's face is marred by a glistening tear as it winds its way down through the many wrinkles adorning his face. His voice quavers slightly before deepening and almost shaking with anger he whispers the last bit of the explanation. "The end of the world, foretold by so many religions around the world, in the end, was caused by their actions. They destroyed everything, terrible weapons using the fission of radioactive atoms were used to blanket the face of the earth until humans, with all of their potential for good, caused their own extinction." The old man's head shook with emotion. "Even the mighty Goku, who truly wasn't human to begin with, but an alien from the saiyajin race, was not strong enough to survive the explosions."

The old man turns and begins to fade into the background as he slowly walks away. Seconds before he is no longer visible he turns his head and speaks for the last time. "There is a hope, however, that not everything on earth died that day. Goku's baby son, only 7 years old at the time of the catastrophe, was placed in suspended animation by a genius of her time known as Bulma. She placed Goku's son, Gohan, deep beneath the ground in a shielded cavern, just in case one of them survived, so that they might have a small piece of Goku's legacy among them." The old man turns fully and grins broadly. "There he still waits, untouched by the destruction above, waiting for someone to revive him."

The old man fades away completely with a quiet chuckle.


	2. Chapter 1: Discovery

A/N – So yeah this will be my second attempt at a multi-chapter story. The first chapters will probably come rather slowly while I map out exactly where I want this to go so please be patient. Even though I feel that there is no real reason to put this aside from dodging a lawsuit: I do not own anything in this story except my wild imagination.

Chapter 1 – Discovery

_Thump . . . . . Thump . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thump . . . Thump . . . . . . . . . . . .Thump . .Thump . . . . . Thum-Thump_

"Doctor his heart is speeding up!"

"It's a good start, give him a dose of adrenaline! We don't know how long he was in there."

The doctor walked over to the table in the center of the ship's ER. He looked quite young, his eyes still full of emotion as he looked at the only person, as far as they could tell, who was left alive on that planet. He turned back to his nurse who was currently monitoring his vitals. "I think he's stable enough to enter a pod. Does the lab have his DNA sequenced yet?"

The young nurse walked over to a terminal and spoke in low tones for a moment or two before turning back to the doctor and nodding. "Yes Dr. Gratz, they've already started filling a pod for him."

Dr. Gratz smiled for a second before exclaiming quietly. "Yes! I love it when the system works! What are we waiting for lets get him in there!"

The nurse grinned before performing a mock salute. "Right away sir." and pushed the table through the open door into an adjacent room.

One of the lab workers burst in through another door, one leading to the rest of the ship. Panting slightly he made his way over to the doctor. "Dr. Gratz!"

"Whoa! Calm down there Usag, what happened?" Dr. Gratz started to pull an emergency kit together.

"No-nothing bad." He straightened up a little bit from leaning on his knees. "We found out how long the kid's been in there though."

The Doctor stopped his rummaging for the moment to quark and eyebrow. "Oh? Must be quite interesting for you to run here . . . especially when you're so lax about your training." A sarcastic grin appeared on the doctors face. 'Oh how I love interns.'

Usag frowned for a moment before continuing. "You wont be saying that after you hear this! We were able to carbon date the oil from the skin of whoever put the kid in the capsule! The fact that it was even possible is unimaginable!1" Usag had always been somewhat of a science nerd and it showed in his excitement over this find. "That kid has been asleep for over 400 years!"

'My God...' Dr. Gratz's eyes widened and he stared slack-jawed at the rejuvenation room where Gohan was being placed in a pod.

Usag was still going on about what they had found in the room "-It's incredible! They managed to power the entire room off of the energy the kid put out unconsciously! That tube could've probably held him for another century before it started to fail! They even powered a computer that's just stacked with data! I can't wait until we crack the password!" Usag paused before returning his attention to Gratz. "Hey doc. . ."

"Hm!" Gratz jumped a little bit before turning back to Usag. "Something else?"

"Yeah, This one's a little more in your playground than the engineering of the pod." He smiled slightly. "While we were mapping his code we found some weird stuff in there, part of it matches a saiyajin's structure but the rest of it is completely unknown."

"So he's a saiyin hybrid . . . Interesting. The last of his kind as well..." Dr. Gratz looked through the door as Gohan was suspended in a thick, blue, liquid by his nurse. "Interesting indeed."


	3. Chapter 2: Wake Up

A/N – Rejoice! For I have finally figured out the ENTIRE plot of this story! This is wonderful because it makes it soooo much more likely that this one will be finished, unlike my previous failed story "Chakra Genius". I do have one failing however and that is coming up with names. So if any of you reading this (whether you have an account or not) think up any names you would like to have me use, then please drop a review containing the name (an ego-boost about how good the story is would be good too :P). On a side note, please make sure you tell me the gender of the name (they can be OUT THERE sometimes lol). So! Without further interruption, I give you Chapter 3!

Disclaimer – I own nothing, save my laptop and some books I need to get around to selling back to the school.

Chapter 2 – Wake Up

Dr. Gratz looked out one of the windows to his room, sighing slightly at the brown and blue planet beneath them. There were a few specks of green every now and again, probably protected from the bombs' onslaught by surrounding mountains. To think that this world had been covered in greenery a mere 400 or so years ago, the destruction surpassed imagination. One could only hope that the seas still contained life enough to repopulate the landmasses once again. . . In time. He turned away to look at his rather spartan living space.

His sleeping area consisted of an anti-gravity field, spaced near where the ceiling and the wall met and spanned the entire ceiling. There were a few drawers that pulled out from one of the interior walls, since his bed took up the ceiling he had a small table set in the corner next to the door with a lamp for lighting attached to it. On the opposite side of the room, set right next to the window but not obstructing it, was a desk with a monitor embedded into the wall and a small speaker in the desk, both connected to the ships mainframe computer. The room itself was only 6 feet wide and 12 feet long with the ceiling reaching only 8 feet. . . He lived in a box. However, being a doctor did have it's perks, he had a secondary door that led to his own private restroom (something he was so very overjoyed about) and a wide bookcase set into the wall for all of his necessary health and medical resources, along with a few of his favorite novels. The window he had just been peering out of was another perk, seeing as not everyone had one, and the view was always spectacular.

Gratz went over and flipped the switch to turn on his lamp, the view was clearer with no lights on, and started getting dressed.

(o,O) the new and improved Owl-chan, page breaker extrordinare

Gohan's body floated, lifeless looking, in a sphere of blue, viscous goo. His hair had grown all the way down to his waist in thick, soft, spikes. His face was unmarred in any way and his face was peaceful, the nurse finished her observation of his vitals and was admiring him though the Plexiglas dome that contained him. Someone who wasn't used to the new technology might have panicked at the fact that he wore no respirator to help him breath, instead, they super-saturated the substance with oxygen and let the patient inhale it, actually providing more oxygen for them than the traditional way of breathing air. This option did, however, have one drawback. She grimaced lightly remembering her first time being set inside such a tank. One had to cough up all the goo after being let out, very unpleasant but worth it if you were ever so seriously injured that you needed it. As a general rule: If you were still conscious when you got to the medical center, you didn't need the pod. Idly the nurse switched the monitor over to his brainwaves and energy signature, staring in wonder at how high his energy level was for one so young, it was then that she noticed it. Gasping she tapped the screen and pulled up his past brainwave history for the last several hours. "It's fluctuating rapidly . . . but that would mean. . ." She turned to look back at Gohan just in time to see his body convulse once before his fathomless black eyes shot open.

A/N – Sorry for the short chapters but I love the cliffhangers! And thus everyone hates me (Grins widely). So, so far there are 4 characters: The un-named nurse, Dr. Gratz, Gohan and Usag. Any ideas for last names or a first and last name for the nurse? I'm open to suggestions. I'm also going to need names for a few warriors, a few politicians (both nice and not) one more nurse (male or female I haven't decided yet) and maybe a few engineers. Can't wait to see your reviews!


	4. Chapter 3: Awakened!

A/N – I forgot to explain this in the last chapter but Carbon dating can only be done after a certain amount of time has passed. Showing that significant time had passed since anyone had touched the machine.

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything, 'cept maybe some of the Ocs

Chapter 3 – Awakened!

A flash of light.

Dad lifting me up onto his shoulder.

Studying with Mom.

A cookout with our friends.

The earth was shaking.

My first martial arts lesson.

Getting to watch a new challenger lose to Dad.

Dad teaching me the Kamehameha and how to fly.

The sky turning red behind us as we raced towards Bulma's mansion.

Mom telling me a story before bed.

Fishing the fun way.

Mom was crying, I didn't understand, but I started crying too.

Dad challenging the Boogie Man to a fight . . . and winning.

My 5th Birthday party, everyone was there.

Dad looking lost and broken.

Mr. Piccolo teaching me how to meditate and commune with nature.

Sparring with Dad.

The regular beep of the machines around me.

Helping Krillin hide Master Roshi's porn, and watching Krillin get yelled at by Mom.

Picnics on a perfect spring day with just the three of us.

Bulma talking in rushed tones right before she shut the lid.

Holding onto Mom tightly so she wouldn't fall as we flew over the ocean.

Petting the flying nimbus . . . and trying to race it.

Master Roshi's voice as he spoke through the small microphone in the tube.

Meeting Icarus.

A bright flash of light and then darkness...

Gohan's body shivered for a moment before he was fully conscious, the first thing he registered was that it was hard to move, shortly followed by the fact that he couldn't breath. His eye's and mouth shot open and he attempted to scream though the thick goo obstructing his windpipe, but to no avail.

(o,O)

Dr. Gratz was walking down the corridor towards the med lab to check up on Kira and his only patient for the time being. He was about halfway there when the floor shook for a second, stopping him in his tracks. '. . . Must be some of those muscle-bound idiots getting carried away in the Gym. . .'

It was the activation of the emergency alarm, however, that made him run towards his destination at a frantic pace.

(o,O)

'I . . . I can't breath!' Gohan scratched his hands at the glass for a few seconds before growing still and closing his eyes.

Kira took one look at the power monitor before starting to back away with wide eyes. "It's . . . Oh dear god . . ."

'Gather your energy to your center. . . Crush it down until it feels like it will explode . . . . . Then push . . . It . . . FURTHER!' Gohan's eyes shot open once again, only this time there was no frantic flickering of his black eyes, instead his eyes glowed with a bright, white light. He threw out his arms and legs, previously in the fetal position, until the struck the sides of the dome and the pulse of energy he emitted shattered the glass into fragments so small, they would be finding them in odd corners and cracks for years to come. It also had the added effect of frying every piece of equipment in a 3 foot radius around him and shaking his entire section of the station.

Kira screamed and hit the alarm.

(o,O)

Dr. Gratz opened the door to a war zone. Kira was shivering in a corner her eyes wide and terrified as she stared at the young boy. Dr. Gratz could approach no further, the corona of the young boy's aura was blazing so high that even he, who prided himself on his training regimen, was overwhelmed by a boy of no more than 8!

Gohan, sprawled out on all fours, was coughing up large globs of bluish gunk and dry heaving as they were forced up his throat. His eyes teared and he could do nothing but wait for it to be over, not even noticing anyone else in the room. . . .

After a few minutes he fell onto his side, pathetically coughing and hiccuping as his body clenched and unclenched rhythmically with each breath. Blearily he opened one eye and croaked out a phrase they didn't understand before his head fell slightly and conked on the ground. At this point both Dr. Gratz and Kira seemed to gain some control over themselves again and they stumbled over to where he lay, quickly checking his pulse before lifting his dead weight up on a nearby table. It was that very moment that the "Muscle-Bound Idiots" decided to make an appearance.

"WHERE DID IT GO!!? THAT POWER LEVEL WAS HUGE!!! CAN'T WAIT TO SPAR **THAT**!!!" A giant of a man, standing at a towering 6' 7" with so much muscle packed onto his frame that he had to turn sideways to enter though any door in the station. Even his voice seemed almost too large to fit in the room, a deep bass flavored with a hint of an unidentifiable accent.

He was followed by a much smaller man, only about 5' 9", with a more lean build and a slightly quieter voice. "Where is he?!" The shorter man's voice sounded slightly winded and raspy, even though the person speaking wasn't out of breath at all. The large man's face matched the rest of him, a gigantic smile of battle-lust was displayed quite prominently and his sparkling teeth were almost distracting. Contrary to his large partner, the smaller man's face was adorned with a deep-set frown and angry eyes, a deep scar down the side of his face completed the look making him much more frightening to look at.

Dr. Gratz frowned and almost growled as he recognized them. They were the ultimate war tool, created from their past society. Strong warriors who would not quit until their opponent was dead. Berserkers. These two were taken out of prison and given a second chance, they were not, however, without restraints. Collars had been placed around their necks, wrists, ankles and waist, these collars would, if activated, extract all of their energy at once. If someone hit another switch, it would blast their vitals with their own energy, usually completely vaporizing everything except the collars themselves. They would instantly extract energy if anything threatened the collar's placement without the proper code, one only held by the captain. If ever they made any aggressive motions toward any of the crew, they received a slight shock, if after three seconds the action did not stop, their energy is taken, if after 10 seconds of having no energy they still continued then their life would be ended. So far these two had been no trouble, but everyone was wary around them. One could still die in 13 seconds after all.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your training gentlemen. . ." He almost spat out the word. "But our patient is still far from well enough to spar the likes of you. If you would please exit the med lab for now and I will, if you wish, update you on his progress at a later time." He let out a nervous breath as he finished. Kira had all but fainted again from their entrance.

Apoulden, the large man, and Rartaz, the shorter, angry man, both snorted at his calling them gentlemen. By the end, Apoulden, bored already by his lengthly offer, simply turned and exited, probably heading back towards the training center. Rartaz's seemed to flicker for a moment before he appeared right next to Gohan's Unconscious body. Startled by his appearance Kira gasped loudly and fell backwards, Dr. Gratz glared and took a step forward intending on commanding that he leave, only to be stopped short. Rartaz growled and pushed forward towards the doctor. "You think to stop me?"

Dr. Gratz saw the light blue ark of the warning shock and yet Rartaz barely even flinched. Still he walked closer to the doctor, his fists clenched and one arm being pulled back much to far for Gratz's peace of mind. Suddenly Rartaz stopped and carefully walked out of the lab, a smirk on his face.

Dr. Gratz stumbled over to a chair and took a deep breath. 'He timed that . . . He knew exactly when it would steal his energy and waited until the last second before leaving. The shock didn't even faze him! I'll have to go see the captain about this.' He looked over to where Gohan slept and grinned slightly. 'the funniest thing about all of that is how much this young kid trumps them all in power level. I just hope he's a bit more sane.' He stood up and helped Kira to her feet. "You can take the rest of the day off, I'll call in Granth to assist for the rest of the day, he wont mind the extra shift for your sake." She nodded and mumbled her thanks before quietly walking out of the room.

A/N – As you can see I've used some of the names you guys have suggested. I wonder how long I can keep this up at one chapter a day? Lol, word count keeps climbing with each new chapter so it shouldn't be long until we get to 2000 word chapters. Your reviews are greatly appreaciated and I read every single one so keep em coming!


	5. Chapter 4: Wandering

A/N – Alright, I've tortured you guys enough now so I'm finally going to have Gohan awake and not freaking out constantly (aka actually showing some personality) Sorry for making Kira so dramatic, she will also be showing some personality in this chapter. I'm ridiculously motivated for this story and I only hope it continues.

Disclaimer: ALL TOGETHER NOW "I. OWN. NOTHING!" yaaaaaaaaay (breaks down into tears)

Chapter 4 – Wandering

The lights were off in the Medical Center, Granth had been called to help patch up two overzealous soldiers after training. The first thing Gohan thought when he awoke was how annoying the beeping machines were.

_**Beep! . . . Beep! . . . Beep! . . . Beep!**_

Gohan rolled over on his "bed" and nearly crushed this troublesome alarm clock before remembering his fathers advice.

"_When you get to be as strong as we are Gohan, we must limit our strength, no matter how much something annoys us or bothers us." Goku looked down at Gohan with a slightly stern frown on his face._

"_Daaaad I know that! It was just an alarm clock!" Gohan said pouting and exasperated._

"_Oh? First off, even alarm clocks cost money and you know how your mother is about that. And what if it had been Krillin playing a little practical joke on you early in the morning, making those noises himself?" Goku squatted down in front of Gohan to finish this scenario._

_Gohan's eyes widened. "But then I would hit uncle K!" His eyes started tearing up._

_Goku hugged his son. "Shhhh. It's ok. So, rather than hitting the alarm without looking at it, isn't it safer to know whats going on first and maybe avoid hitting someone or breaking something?" Goku smiled warmly at his son._

_Gohan nodded enthusiastically._

"_Right! So . . . Wanna go fishing? Race ya there!" The evening quickly degenerated into a game of tag and fishing._

_**Beep! . . . Beep! . . . Beep! . . .Bee- . . . . . . . .**_

Gohan, in the meager lighting available from screens around the lab, had found the volume switch and muted the annoying machine, proud for having remembered his lesson. He sat up slowly, finding it harder than usual to do so. He muttered lightly to himself. "This isn't my bed . . ." He cast about in his memory for where he was and what had happened. "Everyone was really scared . . . Daddy flew me over to Bulma's house and she put me in a weird bed . . ."

His eyes were accustomed to the dim lighting now and he was able to faintly see an outline of the capsule he had been in. He hopped out of the "bed" and padded lightly over to where it had been sawed open. "It looks broken . . . I guess that means Bulma got me out." He was still a little confused about why he had been put in the "bed" to begin with but his childlike innocence suggested that since he was out it didn't really matter anymore. He began to look around a little more but found everything to be rather plain and boring. He saw a door-like indent in the wall and walked towards it, when he was about 3 feet away from it the door slid sideways with a light "swoosh" sound. The corridor outside was awash in a pure white light and it hurt his eyes for a few seconds, forcing his forearm up to block the influx of light. After a moment or two his eyes had once again adjusted and he peered down the opening in front of him.

The Medical Center's door opened into a three-direction hallway, one continued past the door to either side with a slight bend to it while the other went straight forward towards the middle of the station. The station was constructed on plans similar to those of the early saiyajin conquering pods. The ship was a sphere but the entire bottom portion was used to generate power for the engine and house the warriors. Through an ingenious breakthrough in technology, Saiyans had found a way to power their machines with their Ki. From this point onward warriors were required on any mission through space, not only for protection but also for fuel. Everyone else's room is in the bottom half of the ship but not nearly as close to the power collector as the warriors' rooms, on a side note, the training facilities are located directly below the power collector and set up so that any and all energy expended there is collected with as little as 1 percent wasted. There are 3 levels in the middle of the ship for the Medical Center, Water Treatment, Kitchen (Located at the uppermost floor out of the 3), Weapons Locker, Control Center and any other facility unrelated to energy production. The rest of the ship at the upper section of the dome is the most protected area in any saiyan craft of any kind. It consists of an entire biosphere, independent of all outside tampering. The chefs climb into the area and collect what food they need to prepare a meal and the rest is taken care of for them. Solid waste from the Water Treatment Facility is pumped into a side area where worms and other ground-dwelling organisms are added to break down the waste into rich soil, which is then spread onto the ground to fertilize the next harvest. This system was created out of necessity, there was never a way for a ship to carry enough food to have a saiyan crew travel anywhere and be conscious. Gohan is currently in front of the Medical center which is located in the second level of the facilities section and towards the central elevator. The walls are white with a metal band running at chest level, slightly above Gohan's head at the moment.

Gohan looked around for a minute wondering which way he should go when he heard a light "_**Ping!"**_ A short ways in front of him. He slowly padded forward, curiosity overwhelming any fear of the unknown.

(o,O)

Granth was stepping out of the cylindrical elevator, a basic medical kit in his arms as he tried to re-assemble it on the way back. He didn't want to leave that kid alone in there for any longer than he had to. The elevator reached the second level and he was stepping out, kit fully assembled now and held at his side like a briefcase, when he heard an odd sort of tapping. 'That doesn't sound like someone walking . . . Too light and high pitched for these boots.' he favored the standard edition boots with a light grimace before looking ahead cautiously as he walked towards the sound and the Medical Center.

(o,O)

Gohan popped out from behind a corner, the corridor had gone through many turns but he had stayed on the straightest path. He remembered something about sound bouncing better on some things than others and so decided that these walls must bounce sound VERY well for him to have heard that sound.

As soon as he rounded the corner he came face to waist with a very startled man, looking to be in his early to late twenties (Human Time). He wore a white, long sleeved coat over top of a white and blue vest and pants. The coat reached his knees and was open in the front revealing the clothing underneath, on one arm and on the right front side there was an emblazoned insignia of a pair of snakes, one gold and one black, latched on to each others tail forming a circle on a background of silver. The vest was collarless and looked to be constructed out of two materials, a soft and elastic blue material that was covered by a much denser white fabric with armor-like properties. The pants were much the same except that the white fabric only covered the upper thighs and shins, he also wore black and white combat boots. Oh, and did I mention his jaw was on the floor?

Gohan smiled, the man looked nice enough, he looked up and said brightly "Hi!" This was all it took for the man to take off, literally. Granth pushed off the ground and flew as fast as he could to the emergency path (a hole through the floor and a matching one in the ceiling, both about 5 feet in diameter.) and disappeared from Gohan's sight. Gohan stood, slightly dumbfounded, a few meters from the elevator, wondering why on earth the man had fled. He checked his power level and found that since being in that "bed" he wasn't able to control it as well as he had before and it tended to fluctuate wildly with his emotions. "Maybe that's why he left?" He sighed and walked over to a small bench near the elevator and waited for someone to pass by, after all it seemed like this was a common area for people to pass through.

A few minutes later and he was already bored, no one had passed through recently and he wasn't even tired enough to sleep through the wait! All the sudden he sneezed and realized how little he was currently wearing. He looked down to see nothing but a flimsy hospital gown and felt the ties of the gown in the back pushing light indentations into his skin. Gohan frowned, he remembered being in his gi when he was put in the "tube bed". His thoughts were derailed by another interesting discovery, something furry and brown smacked the side of his nose. Gohan snatched at it only to have it dart out of his grasp, he watched it warily as he tracked where it was coming from, only to find his butt at the other end! '...I have a tail?!' Even as he thought it his tail swished around a bit as if preening for attention. Gohan tried to control it a little bit and found that he couldn't completely control what it did, but for the most part it listened to him. He wasn't nearly as freaked out now and began seeing what it could do, making it into odd shapes and seeing how far it would stretch. He prodded it a little to hard at one point and was seized by intense pain all the way up his spine for a split second. The experience left his panting and he decided that the tail was something that must be kept safe at ALL times, not only because it was useful but because if he could manage, he would rather never feel anything like that again. That decided he tried to think of how it would be safe, but was having some trouble thinking of anything. In one of its rare acts of autonomy the tail quivered for a moment before wrapping itself securely around his waist, over top of the gown. Gohan stopped his puzzling and blinked down at the appendage before shrugging with an expression stating "That works."

His head snapped up as he heard footsteps, they were somewhat loud and he remembered what he had discovered about the walls. He ran towards the sound and it didn't take him very long to find a young girl, she didn't look a day older than 21, walking with a rifle-shaped weapon draped over her shoulder. He suppressed his aura as much as he still could and padded after her to catch up, not wanting to scare her like the other guy. She seemed to be lost in thought because she didn't hear him coming and he had to tug at the bottom of her vest before she looked down quizzically at him.

(o,O)

'Why, oh why do we have to do guard duty!' Sasha was bored out of her skull with her job. All she did, day in and day out, was eat, sleep, train and walk the hallways keeping the peace. 'As if anyone's going to start something on the ship. All that crap happens when we hit a port!' She sighed and continued her patrol, at least it was half over. She was so preoccupied that she didn't even notice a small power level flair and then quiet before following her. She didn't even notice when this little power level came right up behind her. She finally noticed when she felt a small hand reach and tug on her uniform. She turned and looked down at her side where the uniform had been pulled and came face to face with a little kid, only a few years past training age 1.

(o,O)

This lady was dressed the same as the other guy, a vest and pants colored blue underneath and white armor over top. She didn't have a coat though and her insignia had a black outline of a person with a yellow aura and hair on a silver background. She looked at him blankly for a moment before crouching down to look him in the eyes. He stared right back at her, not moving at all.

'It doesn't look like he is in an emergency . . . . soooooo.' Her eyes sparkled a little bit and her hands darted out, fingers dancing along his ribs.

Gohan's eyes went wide when she started to tickle him and his face turned red from trying not to laugh, but her skill was not to be underestimated and a short while later he was being mercilessly attacked on the floor, laughing hysterically.

Sasha smiled at her handiwork and took a moment to fully look the kid over while he was recovering. He had extremely long hair for one his age, (it reached his waist!) and aside from being in a hospital gown he seemed a little confused.

He bounced back up and smiled at her before asking. "Do you know where Bulma is? Or my mom? I need some clothes." at the end of this he frowned at his gown, picking at it a little bit.

Sasha blinked in confusion. 'The hell?' Whatever it was this kid was speaking it sure as hell wasn't Saiyan. Her eyes darted down. 'He has a saiyan tail though . . .' She looked back up and spoke in Saiyan, hoping he would understand. "Where is your mother? What's her name?"

The tickle-lady was talking, and she seemed very nice, but he couldn't understand a word she said except that it sounded like a question. His head tilted to the side and his tail, which had become unraveled in the tickle-fight formed a loose question mark.

Sasha saw the confusion and sighed. 'I guess their really is no rest for the wicked.' She stood up and pulled him up by his hand as well before lightly tugging his arm for him to follow her.

Gohan, thinking she had understood him, followed happily, smiling up at her as she shot him a loose grin.

'Guess I'll take him to headquarters, maybe someone there will know him?' and so they walked down the hallway as somewhere else in the station, a very scared Granth was heading towards Dr. Gratz's room to inform him of the development.

A/N – 1 Training age is the age at which saiyan's are considered ready to be trained in the manipulation of their ki. Around the same time human children are sent to Kindergarten aka 6 years old.

These chapters are getting longer and longer all the time! Sadly I don't think that chapters THIS long will be able to always be produced in one day, this one took me 6 hours to write and I do have other things in my life lol. So now you know what the general Saiyan uniform looks like now, I didn't want to use the cross with a snake as a symbol for a hospital so instead I used the old, Inevitable death snakes (If anyone knows what that symbol is really called please let me know) to stand for their practice of medicine. The Super-Saiyan reference should be obvious when it comes to warriors, as that would be the epitome of strength and power.

He got his tail back because of the immersion in his own, complete, DNA and it is a tribute to perfect climate control that Gohan didn't even notice his state of dress until later. As for Sasha, I'm setting her up to be kind of a ditz so all of her oversights will fit lol. She's a character I'm going to have some fun with! And I want to make the word count even so I'll let you know that this story is now over 5000 words long! And then some HA HA HA!


	6. Chapter 5: Bored

A/N – Since the 5000 mark has been reached . . . and surpassed, it's now time to aim for the 10,000 word mark! Though I doubt it will get there with just this one chapter . . . . probably one more after this will do it lol. So Gohan is awake but no one understands a word he says, he has a tail (which will stay :P) and has met a ditsy security guard-esk character and is now being escorted to the Security Center. Also if you haven't noticed, now that Gohan is awake, the descriptions will become much more detailed than they were previously. So last week I- "GET ON WITH IT" . . . fine.

Disclaimer: I own my pants . . . and nothing else, yes I stole this shirt.

Chapter 5 – Bored

Sasha was becoming more and more curious as she walked with the kid, he didn't say all that much to **her** but had a habit of looking at everything around him and mumbling quietly to himself. He was intrigued by the simplest things! She looked over at Gohan who was currently amusing himself with tapping the wall and seeing how far the sound carried before it came back, it didn't work out very well, however, because the sound was bounced in every direction evenly and so there wasn't much of an echo. He also had been looking at the floor and ceiling; after a short time of this he went into another conversation with himself that sounded puzzled and somewhat bored. Sasha merely shrugged and pulled him along a little faster to their Center.

The Security Center was the only one that had a link to each of the 3 central floors and direct access to each floor in the residential area. Unfortunately for them, not even the police got access to the biosphere. The main offices of this center were located on the second floor, but their are also some offices on the first and third as well. Everything else is connected by the emergency routs though the floor and ceiling, leading to (almost) everywhere in the station.

She arrived at the large front doors leading to the Center and said a few words in that language he didn't understand. A small pad slid out of the wall next to the door and she placed her thumb on it and powered up a little. The pad blinked for a second before sliding back into the wall as the door began to open. The door itself was over a foot thick and layered with both the smooth white material of the walls and ceiling, but also a metal that looked much stronger than even high grade steel. They interlocked by having alternating rectangles of slightly different proportions that slid together from each side and pneumatic poles that slid down from the ceiling and floor to lock them together. There were two similar poles that slid through the bottom of the doorway for added stability but these were hidden by the armor of the door. They reached a hight of around 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide forming a half-circle.

They arrived in the department to find it oddly panicked, she pulled Gohan as fast as she could to her small office and sat him down in one of her extra chairs. She then made several hand motions trying to get across that he was to stay here and not cause trouble. . . Gohan thought she looked like she was trying to dance.

Sasha saw the confusion and sighed. 'What can I do to keep him out of trouble while I figure out where Raul is?! Maybe I can just distract him. . .?' She glanced around her office for a moment before she saw it. 'HA! Kids love these! This'll keep him occupied for 10 minutes at least!' She jumped over to the shelf and grabbed the object of her relief, tossed it to Gohan and bolted out the door.

Gohan caught it by instinct alone and almost dropped it. Fumbling with it a second he finally got a good look at what the somewhat spazzy guard had thrown him.

"A yo-yo?"

(o,O)

Sasha was dashing towards Raul's office when she heard an all call from the Security Center Chief.

"_**All security personnel are to be on the lookout for a Saiyan child of about eight years wearing a hospital gown! I repeat, by order of the security chief, All security personnel are to be on the lookout for a Saiyan child in a hospital gown!"**_

Sasha slowed to a jog and then stopped dead, her head turning slowly back the way she had just come.

(o,O)

Gohan hadn't ever really played with a yo-yo before so he played with it in her office for a little bit before getting bored and leaving. 'Dad can sense ki so it doesn't really matter where I am in this place.' Gohan still didn't have much control over his power so he couldn't use it to actually track someone down, plus he had less control over it now than he had had even before training with Mr. Piccolo! So Gohan, once again, began wandering down the halls, randomly picking a direction whenever he came to an intersection.

After a little while he found himself in a dead end hallway with a door at the end. The insignia was one of a man flexing his biceps, legs shoulder width apart. He walked up to the door and stared at it for a few moments. 'what was it that lady did?' He knocked lightly on the door and said quietly. "Umm . . . Please open?" He then heard a slight shift to his left, he looked over and saw the same small interface that had popped out for her. He grinned and ran over to it.

The interface had a small 7x5 screen and a thumb shaped indent underneath that. It displayed a group of symbols and characters digitally that made no sense to him. He shrugged and put his thumb on the pad and raised his power level a little like she had. It didn't open immediately, instead it showed two buttons on the screen, each had writing inside, one was green and the other red. 'Green is always good right?' He tapped the screen over top of the green button. The massive doors immediately opened, the screen flashed some more characters across but he ignored them in favor of going inside.

(o,O)

Sasha was anxious, not only was this a chance for her to make up for her past screw-ups, but she could also make sure the kid didn't get hurt by some of her . . . less gentle comrades. She burst into her small office . . . . and felt like crying.

(o,O)

Gohan had been a little confused when he entered a small room with an elevator in the middle, but just went with it and stepped in. Immediately afterward it had sped downwards so fast his feet almost left the floor, he arrived at the bottom wide eyed and with some adrenaline already in his system.

'It feels strange here.' Gohan walked past the barrel shaped room in the middle and looked at some of the various weight lifting apparatuses around the edges of the room. He came to a the other end of the room, the side hidden by the barrel room in the center, to find two doors, each with a different insignia above it. One showed the outline of two men with their fists up and a yellow star-burst in between them while the other showed two men flexing like the first insignia he had found and a green tube pulling their aura upwards.

He was a bit confused about the second symbol so instead he entered the first, the insignia with the star-burst. The door, just like the door exiting the Medical center, slid open when he came within a few feet of it and he walked in without hesitation.

'This looks like some sort of training area and if my Dad hasn't felt my energy yet then he must be training right?' when he entered the door slid shut behind him and it got dark. He was now in a small room with what seemed like only one door. A second after the door had shut, green lighting illuminated from both the ceiling and the floor while he felt a vague stirring of air from all sides. Five seconds later the whirring stopped and the wall in front of him lifted into the ceiling, with the encroaching light he could see that four blade-like coulombs had dropped from the ceiling and circled around him a few times, stirring the air, and were in the process of lifting back into the ceiling as the door opened. He walked forward into a slightly extended room with a single screen displaying a set of symbols and then what looked like some sort of number. There were several sets of these varying in length until, on the last one, the number took up an entire extra line separate from the group of symbols! The screen cleared after a few seconds and the wall in front of him again opened up and led him into a large dome-like room. In the center was a raised platform of white tiled material and he could see a door identical to the one he came out of on the other side.

(o,O)

Sasha was walking down the hall with her team, in her hand she held a device the size of a cellphone. "He left a hair in my office so this should lead us right to him!"

Her team consisted of four other officers, two male and two female. All had their weapons out and loaded as they followed Sasha through the halls. The device in Sasha's hand was a powerful one, it uses a fragment of DNA to construct the whole strain. It then uses the DNA to get a signature on the beings energy that is as distinct as the DNA itself. It can then track this person though use of a simple arrow pointing in a straight line to the beings location. However, in the past few years new technology had been added to it and it was now able to send out pulses of sound and energy, sacrificed by the user, to map out the surroundings. No longer were you just following an arrow but now you are able to follow a road map to their position and even map out possible escape routs without ever having been in the area! This technology, of course, was limited to Security personnel only and even then, only to squad leaders and higher ranks, due to how powerful a tool it was.

Sasha built up some of her energy in the device and switched on the mapping feature. She slowly scrolled the screen ahead to find exactly where he was, they didn't need to bother following the device blindly, they already knew the ship routs by heart. When she saw the red dot signifying her target Sasha's heart dropped like a rock.

"He's in the combat training room. . . ." She couldn't remember ever having run this fast in her entire life.

A/N – So what do you think? Sorry about not updating as usual, it seems that I've somehow gotten sick! Blegh! So I was shivering and stuff for most of yesterday and today. I feel like I'm getting better pretty quick though so never fear, I will live lol. So what do you think about the insignias? Are the descriptions clear enough? If not explain what confuses you and I'll fix it. I wonder how many people actually read these? Lol.


	7. Chapter 6: Should've Stayed Put!

A/N – Truly sorry for the wait, but for some reason I just can't seem to kick this cold! Annoying! Plus I've had to siphon off my writing abilities for scholarships (I'm transferring campuses and the new one costs about double what my old tuition had cost). Enough excuses, I suppose it's about time to work on this now lol

Disclaimer: I own nothing. . . and I'm sick . . . isn't life grand.

I realize I didn't put this before, but from now on this will be the format:

"Spoken Word"

_'Thoughts . . .and maybe telepathy if I include it'_

"_**Speakers and oxymoron's . . . also anything real loud will be in bold"**_

Chapter 6 – Should've Stayed Put!

Gohan was wary. He remembered the insignia being one of two people and a star burst, seeming to suggest a fight, however, there was no one here as far as he could tell. The dome was quite large as he looked in all directions, systematically checking for incoming attacks or a battle already in progress. Nothing.

He flared his aura a couple times to flush someone out. Nothing.

He warily approached the nearest side and inspected the room with his back against the wall. The ceiling must have reached 100 yards, so far that he couldn't make out any real details about what was up there, save that if someone was there, they would have to be camouflaged. As he looked to his side he saw something that made him smile. He padded, no longer quite so worried about an attack, over to a small cabinet-like protrusion on the wall a few yards to his left. When he got closer he quickly stripped off the rather revealing hospital gown and scanned what was available.

To accommodate the variance in sizes among saiyans, the battle suit he had seen on both the "tickle-lady" and the "scardy-guy" had been made to be extremely flexible and conform to almost any body size, including one as small as Gohan's. They were organized into three categories that were very distinguished in size variance: The one to his left looked large enough to fit both his dad and Mr. Piccolo at the same time, the one directly in front of him looked like it would only have to stretch just a little bit to fit his dad and the smallest one looked like it would fit snuggly.

He picked out the vest, pants boots and gloves and pulled them on. He grabbed his now unneeded hospital gear and tucked it inside the cabinet, near the bottom in the place his boots had previously occupied, He always had been extremely tidy. He tapped the toe of each boot against the floor to settle his feet into a comfortable position and bounced on the balls of his feet a few times, amazed at the thick boots' flexibility.

He glanced around and was slightly disappointed, there was a battle room and no one to try this new suit out on! He wasn't a battle-phile like his Dad but he did find it exhilarating to test his skills against another worthy opponent, and getting new stuff did always make him a little giddy. He walked over to the ring and hopped into it. Now that he had a closer look the set-up was remarkably similar to that of the World Martial Arts Tournament. He saw a small monitor off to the side on a pole, held at waist hight to everyone else, and chin hight for Gohan. He tried to lift himself up high enough to get a good look, but couldn't find any convenient hand holds. Curiosity killed the cat, and Gohan was GOING to find out what this weird computer did. He thought about pulling the pole out of the ground, but that would make the computer stop working, as he sat down to think it occurred to him how stupid he would have to be not to realize the obvious solution. He stood back up and pushed some energy into his feet, just as he had been taught, it was odd though, the amount he had used before he was put in the bed didn't float him like it used to. It would pop him a few feet into the air and then he would slowly fall to the ground. He pushed more energy into it and it launched him a full three feet into the air and he kept rising. Frowning he decreased his energy until it was just enough to keep him steady. He played with it for a moment, making it more then making it less, seeing how far the increases shot him and how fast he fell for how much he reduced it.

Now that he had a handle on it he dived down at the computer and stopped just above the display. Before he could push anything resembling an "on" button he heard a mechanical whine and a gentle swoosh from the other side of the room.

(o,O)

Sasha was moving at break-neck speed. Using corners as opportunities to speed up she jumped and ran a few steps on the wall before shooting off in the next direction with her energy, even her team was having trouble keeping up.

_'Why am I doing this? I just met this kid today.'_ Her facial features hardened and her eyes glinted dangerously at her own betraying thoughts. _'He's a good kid, and I wouldn't wish THEM on anyone!'_

Another glance at her tracker and another corner. "HURRY UP!" Her team almost never heard her scream at them, they pulled out all the stops to keep up with her as best they could.

(o,O)

Gratz paced nervously in the Medical Center as Granth relayed his part in this. "So after I got done patching them up I took the elevator back up to this floor and started walking back here, jogging actually." Here his arm motions got a little more wild and he leaned forward as he spoke. "I almost ran into this kid! He barely reached up to my waist but I heard what happened to Kira when he blew up the Re-Gen tank! He said something in another language and I bolted. His power levels were all over the place! I didn't want to try and restrain him myself so I went to get you. . . . That's about it."

Dr. Gratz shook his head a little. "So let me get this straight. You ran away . . . From a little kid?" His eyebrow quirked. "Some sparring partner, maybe I'll have to find someone a bit more courageous hmm?" Granth blushed slightly and turned his head away in shame. "Don't worry about it. The Security Corps will get him, and since he's able to stand and walk on his own now, from my standpoint, he's free to go." His eyes were not without compassion but years of working in this field had taught him certain things. "It's out of our hands now."

(o,O)

In Gohan's book, this situation is classified as "Way Not Cool!" the minute the door opened a whole bunch of guys in the same suit jumped out with big gun-looking things pointed at him and screamed a few words at him. He had just blinked at them for a few seconds before they screamed something similar but with some extra words. He turned towards them and was in the middle of waving "Hi" before they opened fire. Two shots hit him in the chest but were dissipated on contact with his vest. He jumped backwards and hid behind the raised fighting stage.

This is where we find him now, huddled behind a fighting stage with 5 people firing at him non-stop. Definitely not cool. Suddenly he heard a shout above all the gunfire, actually it was more of a roar, and the firing stopped. He popped his unprotected head a little bit above the edge of the stage, and was slightly happy. All the gunmen had been knocked out and a large man stood in the middle, hands on his waist as he surveyed his handy work.

Gohan had lived a fairly sheltered life, most of what he had discovered was based on only one occurrence and he had nothing to back it up against to prove it. Thus he instantly trusted this man, after all, an enemy of an enemy is a friend, right?

(o,O)

Sasha was almost crying, she was almost there! Those shots were still being fired, either he was fighting back or they hadn't been able to hit him yet, she hoped for the latter. She raced down the emergency pipeline to the training center and typed a rapid password into the Combat Training entrance door before speeding in. She came in just in time to see Gohan, while looking over his shoulder at the massive Apoulden, push the "Begin" button.

The door pulled shut, blocking her inside and the rest of her team outside and immediately she could tell what happened. "The Gravity Generator!" She was pulled to her knees by the increased strain and, unable to move from that spot, was helpless as she watched Gohan be pulled to the ground as well, with the towering behemoth laughing at them from above.

(o,O)

Gohan felt heavy as soon as he hit the button, so heavy in fact, that he was pulled to the ground. The big man in front of him, who he now knew was evil, was saying something and laughing at his predicament. The man then picked him up by the front and tossed him into the air. Gohan was terrified, he knew now that the gravity had been increased somehow and that he would be falling at high speeds towards the very hard floor below. Even with his new armor, there was no way he would survive a fall like that unscathed. He pulled together all the energy he could and forced it out of his feet to try and hover, or at least slow his fall, but he might as well have done nothing, it seemed inevitable. His gaze wavered over to Sasha, it was almost like time had stopped, he saw her struggling to stand and then he saw the menacing Apoulden stomping over to where she was, a lustful grin on his face as he spoke in a language Gohan was beginning to think he should learn and licking his lips.

He didn't know much about what was going on, but he did know that the lady was nice, she had led him to her office and come to find him and that the Man was evil, he did knock out all the guys with guns, but he had also tried to hurt Gohan by making him fall and looked like he was going to hurt the lady too. Something inside Gohan just seemed to snap. Not a snap in the way someone angry yells something particularly vicious at someone else. Not a quick motion of the hand that hit someone when they weren't expecting it. This snap was more of a feeling of warmth that spread through his entire body through a dam of ice. Just like that dam, Gohan's restraints were broken.

(o,O)

"Oh, well look what we have here. It looks like someone was sticking their head in a little too deep." Apoulden walked towards Sasha, a sick grin on his face. She gasped for a breath of air. "You can't do anything. The collars will-"

-

Gohan reached the apex of his flight.

-

"Do nothing in here." He interrupted her slow speech with a surprisingly educated tone. "Of course you remember amendment 2, right officer?"

-

He begins plummeting towards the tiled floor below, catching sight of Sasha and Apoulden.

-

Her eyes slowly widened and she was overcame by a coughing fit from the high pressure put upon her lungs.

"I thought you would know." He walked at a leisurely pace towards her. "Any aggressive action inside the Combat Training Arena is allowed, so long as a program has already begun." He rushes forward and grabs her by the neck, easily lifting her off the ground. Not only was she slowly being suffocated but her entire weight was resting on her neck . . . Multiplied by 50. She tried to scream, but was helpless and her eyes slowly rolled back into her head.

Darkness.

(o,O)

Gohan's eyes snap open. _'Give up?! Would Dad give up?! NO!'_ Power began flowing through his body, seemingly from nowhere.

_'I'_

His muscles bulged and he all but stopped falling a few feet from the ground.

_'WILL WIN!!!'_ Gohan landed on all fours launching himself forward at Apoulden while at the same time rotating so his back faced the floor. With his hands together he shot a massive blast at the control panel, obliterating it so completely that the only part left was a hollow pole with some cut wires trailing out and liquefied metal dripping down it's sides.

Apoulden was just realizing something was wrong when he felt the gravity return to normal. His head started turning towards Gohan . . . Just in time to be smashed back the other direction by Gohan's fist.

His entire face was pushed all the way back and the single punch actually rocked him back on his heels. Apoulden regained his balance and was about to scream at the kid, but before he was able to he was met with a knee in his gut, forcing all the air out of his lungs and cracking a few of his ribs from the front. His eyes grew wide and he hunched over, spitting up a small amount of blood. Gohan was going to finish it with an axekick to the back of his skull, but Apoulden had gained just enough presence of mind to block the attack, even though it numbed his arm to do so. With the other arm he fired a point blank blast to Gohan's face, sending the smaller Saiyan flying backwards a few meters and hitting the ground.

Gohan rolled over to push himself up with his arms, but without having eaten since his revival, and awakening those strange powers twice in a week, his energy reserves were shot and he could barely stand up as Apoulden advanced, murder written on his face.

(o,O)

Sasha groaned quietly and sat up slowly. _'I thought I'd died . . .'_ She then heard a cry of pain and looked over to a conflict in progress. Apoulden had Gohan by the neck and was repeatedly smashing his fist into the young boy's face and stomach. He looked like he was just moments from death and Sasha wasn't in very good shape either. Her hand crept over to her left forearm and hit a small button on a metal plate worn over the traditional armor. A small holo-screen showed several options she chose one with the outline of a human body, several large slashes marring the image. She didn't bother even looking at the directions on the screen, she looked at the grinning Apoulden . . . . and rapidly hit the button three times.

Apoulden hardly had any time to react. There was a brief shock, followed immediately by a sudden loss of energy and before he could even turn to see what was happening, that same energy was blasted through the cuffs, disintegrating his body, only leaving a pile of ash, followed by the clanging of the falling cuffs.

Apoulden was no more.

Gohan fell heavily to the ground and didn't move. Sasha crawled over to the doorway nearest to her and hit the emergency open switch. Her team burst through the doorway, guns aimed . . . and instantly lowered as they surveyed the damage. Sasha passed out shortly after her team appeared, the combination of stress, gravity changes and near strangulation overwhelming her as soon as she felt safe.

(o,O)

"It's a good thing we have a few extras." Dr. Gratz was looking at the two occupied Re-Gen tanks. He glanced over to Kira and Granth who were both maneuvering an extra tank into the space previously occupied by the one Gohan destroyed.

Kira put in one last shove before standing and leaning against the wall. She rolled her head to the side to address Gratz. "I set up the boy's to notify us 15 minutes before he will awaken, so we can avoid another mess." she glanced nervously over to Gohan's tank.

"I wouldn't be all that worried about the boy anymore Kira. Lt. Kiare supposedly vaporized a berserker. . . that big one you like so well as a matter of fact." Dr. Gratz grinned a little at the joke and was suitably rewarded when Kira made a face of disgust. "Anyway, she vaporized him to save the boy so he must be nicer when fully awake." He smiled slightly at Kira. She had become a little less rigid but was still wouldn't go too close to Gohan's tank. Gratz shook his head and chuckled quietly.

(o,O)

"Bleeagh!" Sasha was coughing and hocking up the gooey healing substance. "That stuff tastes NASTY!" She sat on a table, a towel around her to preserve her modesty as Kira did a basic checkup.

"Everything looks alright. You should probably avoid heavy activity for a few days, take some vacation days maybe?" When Sasha nodded at the suggestion Kira continued. "Go through that door there and shower off while I get your suit, I'll set it right over there." She pointed to a small shelf near the mentioned door. Sasha nodded and hopped off the table before padding lightly over to the door, trying to keep her tail from slinging the remaining goo everywhere.

She stepped into one of the semi-private shower stalls and dropped the towel in a small container. She reached out for the small shower control.

The shower stall itself is a five foot wall on either side that ends against the outer wall where the controls are mounted, leaving the person a bit of privacy but also making the area fairly easy to clean. The controls are set up in a circle, on the top there are several segments that form a half-circle with a space of about one inch separating these segments from the other half-circle below. The top segments range, from left to right, starting with a dark blue and fading into a bright red while the bottom segments started small and gradually grew, forming a set of curved, upside down steps. She pushed her index finger against the lowest dark blue segment and slid her finger around the circle, lighting the sections she passed over, until she stopped on a medium red segment about three quarters around the half-circle. She pulled her finger back and lightly hit the center button. Instantly, like a heated rain water started streaming down from the ceiling overhead, falling on everything within the stall's area. Sasha frowned slightly, the water coming down wasn't nearly enough to wash off all of the goo she had been submerged in. She reached for the segments underneath the button and pulled her finger from the small segment it was set at, almost all the way to the top, stopping just short by two segments. The light rain suddenly turned into a downpour as the water pressure was increased dramatically. She lifted her face to the ceiling and pulled her hands slowly through her hair, eyes closed in relief as her tail all but danced on its own behind her. Only one thought disturbed this moment of ecstasy, and the worst part was that she had absolutely no control over it.

_'I hope the kid's alright.'_

A/N – Well I took my time with this one and tried to get some character development in. Drugedgen suggested that I make them longer and I like the way this one turned out :) I hope you all enjoy! Btw if you've noticed how there is not much of anything written in Saiyan, and most everything is in symbols. This is so Saiyan's could market these ships to other races without too many adjustments to the design. Programming would be the only thing they needed to change for the most part. (And I would LOVE to have a shower like I just described, showering in heated rain :D)


	8. Chapter 7: Tests

A/N – GASP! I'm rather disappointed! Only one review for that chapter? Did it suck that bad? At least say so (Constructively please.) Anywho, I think this story is going to be in at least 3 parts rather than just one. That will make it easier to finish with school and everything too.

_'Thoughts'_

"Words"

"_**Other Things"**_

I Don't Own DBZ, DB, Any characters in either of the aforementioned series or anything owned by the Nintendo corporation . . . And I can't remember who owns DragonBall (Z) . . . yeah . . . ON WITH IT!

Chapter 7 – Tests?

Gohan awoke approximately 21 hours after the events in the Combat Training Center. However, it was significantly more comfortable the second time around. Rather than deal with another outburst like they had the first time, they brought him out of the tank and woke him up manually a few minutes before he would have on his own.

Gohan awoke feeling short of breath. A lady in a white coat stood next to him with a bucket that she held in front of him. He didn't have much time to contemplate what it was for, as the urge to cough overtook rational thought processes. After a few moments of clearing his lungs of the now unnecessary "goo" he was ushered by the women into the showering area.

Gohan was, once again, in one of those infernal hospital gowns! He pulled part of it away from his chest and looked up at her with an expression of minor distaste. She looked down and smiled, even chuckling a bit, she shook her head and guided him lightly with a hand on the back. She hit a key to open the door and walked in with him. She didn't bother talking much, already hearing from the others that he didn't understand. Instead she walked him over to the nearest stall and guided him inside while she showed him the controls from outside the small dividing wall.

Gohan had to look up slightly to see the controls but could easily follow what she was doing. She started off looking at him and tugging slightly at the shoulder of his gown and pointing at the small container in the corner of the room. Gohan nodded but made no other move to comply, a slight bit of red could be seen on his cheeks. Kira shrugged and continued her silent explanation. She guided him to the edge of the stalls range and pulled her finger across the top portion of the device and hit the button.

She had only raised the one segment above cold and had him hold his hand out to feel the water. Gohan frowned slightly thinking he would be forced to take cold showers. Before he could dwell on this for too long however she pulled the temperature much higher so that it was almost too hot making Gohan's arm shoot back away from the heat. Gohan looked at her in surprise and a small amount of betrayal.

She quickly dropped the temperature back down to a reasonably warm level and had him put his hand in again. Slowly he extended his hand into the water and was pleasantly rewarded with an almost normal heat. She gestured and for a second Gohan was confused as to what she was getting at, but then he realized she was asking if he wanted it any hotter or cooler. He nodded and pointed to the next segment higher. She made the adjustment and waved a short goodbye as she left the room to give him some privacy.

Gohan waited a moment after she was gone before stripping off the gown, how something managed to be so flimsy and hardly there but at the same time hamper your movements so much he didn't know, but he did know is that if he could avoid ever being put in one again, he would. He tossed it into the small container and jumped into the stall, it's rain-like properties soothing him as the it gently warmed him and washing away the "blue stuff". His tail looked like it might be enjoying the attention even more than he did...

Speaking of which, since when did he have a tail? He remembered discovering it while waiting around the elevator but that didn't really explain where it had come from. He shrugged slightly and filed this away as one of the things to ask one of the nice people about, if he could find one that understood him.

Another thing that confused him! His entire life he hadn't heard anyone who couldn't speak Japanese at least well enough to understand basic conversation. Even that foreign guy who challenged Dad was able to speak his challenge understandably, sure it was slow and heavily accented but he got his point across. How is it that no one understood him here? He hadn't even seen anyone he knew and he was starting to get lonely, sure there was usually someone around him, but he didn't know anyones name and even if he did he couldn't talk to them...

He shook his head as if to push away the sad thoughts and continued to try and scrub out the persistent goo. A small contraption caught his eye, situated to the left of the shower controls was a small box. It was attached to the wall and jutted out about an inch. There was a small button on the top and a short metal tube that extended from the side, aligning itself parallel to the wall. He hit the button and, as he had suspected, a small amount of semi-viscous liquid squirted out of the tube and into his palm.

He brought his palm, a small amount of the off-white liquid cupped inside, up to his nose and sniffed slightly. It didn't have a very heavy scent, but it didn't smell bad either. He scrubbed his hands together and instantly his hands were covered in suds. He smiled and started tentatively applying it to his hair and body before it was washed away by the pouring rain.

(o,O)

When he was done he guessed at how to turn off the shower, and was proven correct when, after pressing the center button the water-flow immediately halted. He grabbed a towel off of a small shelf near the door and began drying himself. He didn't notice it then but much later he would remark on how quickly everything dried, due to the lack of excess humidity in the ships air.

Gohan coughed a few times experimentally to clear his voice, just because no one heard him didn't mean he was going to be completely non-communicative, and for once it felt like things were going to be calm rather than the giant whirlwind of chaos it had been so far. He wrapped the towel around himself and stepped in front of the door . . . . and nothing happened. He stood there for a few seconds before walking up and tapping the door a couple times . . . . and still nothing. His gaze strayed to the side of the door. There was a small panel slightly higher up than his head. Feeling a little dumb he jumped and tapped the largest button and the door immediately slid open where Kira, having heard his tapping the door and the water being shut off, was waiting with her hands behind her back.

Gohan walked out and stood before her, looking up at her expectantly. Her grin was much too wide to be benign, her left hand appeared and in it . . . . was a NEW hospital gown! Gohan's head drooped a little bit just thinking about how humiliating the revealing garment was.

"Ano . . . You don't have . . . . . ANYTHING else?" Even though he knew she probably didn't understand a single word he said, Gohan was fed up with silence. Kira didn't seem too perturbed by his speaking however, the only thing that changed was the size of her grin growing as she brought forward her right as well. In it was one of the few things that would make Gohan consider her a friend. On a small hanger she held the clean and undamaged combat uniform Gohan had been found in. At his wide eyed expression she tossed it on his head and pointed back into the showering area while she herself went into the other section of the small medical center to grab her white coat, badge and other clothing accessories she usually ignored whilst inside the center.

Gohan jumped back inside the showering area and quickly pulled on the form-fitting suit. While he was putting it on he noticed a symbol was now emblazoned on the left side of the chest. It was the light outline of a person standing in a relaxed stance with a pair of snakes, each latched onto the other's tail, in the background. He emerged again from the showers, this time fully clothed, and saw Kira who was looking significantly more formal than usual. She seemed to look at him for a few seconds before dashing back into the adjacent room. Before Gohan could even follow she was back with a small stretchy band and a brush, she put a hand on each of his shoulders and slowly pushed so his back was facing her. Before he could even wonder what she was going to do she was done. He had forgotten about his hair being so long, another thing he was confused about, and had left it streaming behind him. Kira had, in just a few deft movements, tamed his hair into a simple ponytail sitting high on his head, allowing his hair to trail down to around the middle of his back.

(o,O)

When they arrived in a training area Kira was glancing nervously behind her to a visibly agitated Gohan. He had never really liked violence to begin with, training and getting stronger could be fun and inventing new ways to use your energy was intriguing but fighting for your life or to protect someone's life was something to be avoided if at all possible. Another lesson his father had instilled early on. The greatest irony of this, would be that even though Gohan hated hurting things and would much rather live in peace, he was still damn good at it.

However, it was a profoundly different experience this time around. This time they were in the security center's own personal training facility, it was very similar to the regular training facility except that there was a direct elevator to both the kitchen and the Security Center's main offices. Assembled in the center of the room were some familiar faces and some that would soon become familiar. Standing in the middle and slightly ahead of the entire group was the single person Gohan had most desperately wanted to meet.

The Chef.

In truth this was not the chief chef, he was however, of fairly high rank seeing as he usually oversaw one fifth of the ships food production. In his arms however, was what truly held Gohan's attention. The platter was only slightly larger than your average computer desk but the foods were heaped up higher than his head, in fact, the only parts of him you could clearly see over the mass of food were his legs and hands, along with his hat and a small portion of his face. After seeing Gohan's entrance, he finished unloading his burden on the previously unnoticed table to his right before pulling out the single seat and gesturing for him to take it.

Manners had not completely abandoned Gohan as he raced towards the table, he did pause for a moment to bow politely to the man, but mere moments after that was done with he morphed into his alter ego . . . Vacuum Boy! That food never stood a chance.

Gohan hadn't quite realized how hungry he really was until he saw the laden table. It had been almost a full week since the last time he had eaten anything! . . . Well . . . give or take 400 years or so. Regardless, his hunger hit him with the force of a Super-Saiyan and it felt as if he might die immediately if his appetite wasn't satiated.

Dr. Gratz allowed a small smile to shine through as he (and with great flourish I might add) checked off the first item on the list he held. Appetite.

It only took about ten minutes for Gohan to finish off the feast and grin happily at the beaming chef. It had been quite some time since he had witnessed anyone consume his wares so quickly and with such enjoyment. He gave a slight bow, adding a bit of humor by extending one arm to the side as he did so, and cleared the now empty dishes off of the table and into a waiting assistants hands so that they might be washed.

After a moment or two the table was once again clear and Gohan was once again, curious as to what the rest of them were here for. Surely eating a (fantastic) meal was nothing worth watching? Most of the crowd had seemed to forget he was even there. The only ones paying any attention to him were the chef, the lady who had brought him here and a few people he hadn't met yet.

He took a few moments to actually LOOK at some of the people, really, there wasn't much else for him to do anyway. First he glanced over to where one of the few females in the room stood. He guessed that she was a nurse of some sort, though, she didn't have the Caduceus anywhere on her uniform.

_'Mom said that all doctor and nurse people have that on their uniform . . . Maybe I'm wrong?' _He mentally shrugged to himself. It wasn't like he could find out for sure.

She wasn't all that tall, a random observation as his gaze wandered around the room before settling back on her. She wore her hair in the same kind of high ponytail she had put his in, leaving only some short spiky bangs stopping just above her eyes. It had been braided down her back and then tied at the bottom with a pretty stone as a centerpiece. She wore a rather generic uniform, the only real differences were the insignia and the white overcoat that fluttered around her knees. She saw him looking at her and smiled, but it looked a little forced. He smiled back and let his eyes continue to explore the room and its occupants.

He hadn't really paid all that much attention to the Chef before chowing down so to make up for it he looked the man over now, after all, a chef is an excellent friend to have. The man stood at about 5' 9" or so, a good hight for blending in, he didn't have to look around people but he didn't have to watch where he stepped either. His hair was cut short, about 2 ½ inches long, so that it spiked forward. This was counter-balanced by a light scar that ran from his temple to the beginning of his jawline on the right side. Despite the fact that he would look quite intimidating if met in a back alley, his disposition seemed carefree and generous as he shared smalltalk with others in the crowd, never changing his happy grin as he circulated.

There was only one person not engaging in social interaction and that was the odd man in the center with a clipboard. He was gazing intently at Gohan, as if his thoughts were written on his face for the man to read. He was an older man judging by his graying hair. Currently it was more of a silver then the soon to come full gray and white. His eyes were an unidentifiable color, seeing as it never wanted to stay still. The only consistent factor was that it was a mixture of a Silver-Gray and a Deep Blue. He wore the same insignia as the Lady who brought him in, so whatever they did, it must be somewhat related. He also noticed that the clipboard was more of an integrated screen with a writing tool, much like that GameBoy DS Bulma had gotten him . . . well before his mom took it away that is.

Nothing was happening and Gohan was fast becoming bored. The floating table had occupied him for a few minutes, pondering how it worked, but this too soon lost his interest. Finally he remembered how hard it was now to control his powers in the fight. He didn't like not being in control of himself and wanted to correct that problem asap! Pulling his legs up into the lotus position on the chair, he closed his eyes and lulled himself into a meditative trance.

It took him a few seconds longer than usual but it was a good sign that he was easily able to find his core and begin drawing power from it. He started off slow but increased his pace as it got easier to control. When he had drawn enough to work with he started circulating it around inside his body, winding a spiraling pathway down through his every part of him and ending at his toes. After the circulation was started he began pushing it downward and slowly, ever so slowly, he began to float. At first it was only a lessening of the weight on his chair, but soon he was a full foot higher than where he had been sitting. After he felt himself rise a little Gohan held his energy output steady and started circulating his Ki again. Every now and again he would start to float a little too high and would have to steady himself again, other times he would start to fall and have to compensate with more energy output, but even with this little bit of training he could feel his control returning. When he began the next phase by slowly opening his Ki senses he almost fell back into his seat. When he had done this before with Piccolo he had only seen little bright dots with his mind's eye, the ki of plants and small animals Piccolo had explained. Even when he had practiced in the city, there had been more and much brighter halos of light, but there hadn't been too much of a change. What he was seeing now was a total and complete surprise. It was hard to tell where any one person was! The entire room was literally GLOWING with ki from all the people in there. He stopped circulating his ki for the moment and concentrated on sharpening his focus, making each halo smaller and more compact, concentrating only on the dense ki at the center of their bodies. He found that this did indeed help with eliminating all the excess light in his mind but he could still barely see individuals.

Something seemed to draw his attention to the ceiling. His head moved slightly as his focus shifted upward. . . and was momentarily blinded by what he saw. It was massive! And it was still growing! The entire ceiling was a mass of white light, it was in fact, too bright for him to even focus on. Instead he traced the faint lines of ki that were feeding into it and was once again shocked.

'_It's feeding off of US!'_

At the end of each line was a smaller mass that ran in a strip along the wall and feeding into this strip was a small amount of EVERYONE'S ki. It was even stealing a small amount from what he was using to fly.

_'Maybe that's why it was harder at first. . .'_

He lowered himself to the chair and opened his eyes . . . To find everyone looking at him. Some were looking rather neutral, others surprised and some just smiled a little at the display. The man with the clipboard checked off something else.

After checking the list again, Gratz tapped the clipboard a couple times and began speaking to the others. Although Gohan couldn't understand anything he said, he could tell that the man held a position of some respect and that his opinion was generally valued as a good one. During his short speech he gestured towards Gohan a few times and smiled at the end of it.

Whatever had been said seemed to make sense to most everyone there because most were nodding at the end and murmuring in agreement.

(o,O)

Gratz was once again reminded that very few of the people present had any idea how to approach this situation and were only here to see what all the fuss was about, not to mention that most of them were ordered to come here. He made another check on his list, obviously this child had been trained in the use of his energies to some extent. He cleared his throat quietly and spoke calmly.

"I think . . ." He paused slightly waiting for the last of the conversations to die down. "That we should probably skip some of the obvious questions until later. I for one am interested in his intelligence and if he could help inform us of the fate of his planet. Also with his being so young we can easily teach him our language and culture so that he may function in our society."

Most everyone agreed that finding out what social class he belonged to according to their rules was, at best, a secondary concern, along with many of the other questions on the good doctor's clipboard.

(o,O)

Gohan watched as the clipboard was handed off to someone in the crowd and the older (most likely) doctor sat down across the table from him, his hands folded neatly in front of him and a pleasant smile on his face.

Gohan glanced around nervously and gave a half smile back, uncertain now of what was going on but placing some trust in the man. His attention was pulled back when the man's hands unfolded and he began to speak, making slow gestures as he spoke.

"_Hello. My name is Dr. Gratz. Do you understand?"_ He spoke slowly and with great emphasis on enunciation, gesturing to himself as he said his name.

Gohan, for the life of him, couldn't understand a thing he had just said. The language sounded similar to the Japanese he was used to, but with a guttural drawl and several harsh syllables, also making it similar to the German language. He looked blankly at the man in front of him for a second or two before deciding that turn-about was fair play. He giggled slightly before rattling off a few sentences in Japanese to see if the man could maybe get slightly more out of it then he could from their language.

"_Hello good sirs! I like cute and fluffy pink bunnies . . . for breakfast. Do you know where I could find some?"_ Sure it wasn't going to much help him figure out what was going on . . . . but it was fun!

Dr. Gratz was writing more on his clipboard, but wasn't making a check-mark like last time. He set the clipboard on his lap again and said one word while gesturing to himself. _"Gratz"_

He hesitantly pointed at Gratz and tried to pronounce the word, only needing a few tries before he had it right. He beamed them a bright smile when he got it right and waited for the next word . . . . except they were all looking at him expectantly. Gohan quickly realized that they probably wanted his name in return. He pointed at himself and told them _"Gohan"._

The newly named "Gratz" nodded and wrote a little more on the clipboard before nodding to the crowd and rattling off a few sentences to those who were already leaving, returning to their various duties with hot-off-the-press gossip about their newest addition. The only ones who hadn't left stepped forward and around the table to stand next to "Gratz". One of them was easy to recognize as the spazz-tastic lady who had given him the yo-yo, she was almost vibrating in place with barely contained excitement. The nurse who had brought him here was standing slightly behind "Gratz" and had been passed the clipboard while he observed "Spazz lady." There were two others that he didn't recognize at all, he looked first at the man holding a small hand-held device.

He stood a bit shorter than most others on the ship, standing only at "Spazzy's" shoulder. His skin was also much darker than everyone else's, a "medium brown" whereas everyone else varied from "pale" to "not quite pale." A random though popped up in his head that maybe more people in this place should get some sun. His emblem was the same as "Ms. Spazz" except that it had a red ring around the emblem. His hair, though spiky, seemed to stand up much less than most other's he had seen. He had some sort of rubber band holding his hair back except for a few bangs that fell across his forehead.

The other man stood beside and a little in front of "Gratz" and seemed to exude a feeling of authority. He wasn't particularly powerful, but his posture clearly stated that he was in charge. He stood a full six feet and virtually dwarfed everyone else present. His eyes were calculating and cold as they bored into him, his mouth a grim slash across his jaw, tapered downward at the ends. He wore no emblem and his uniform was more official looking than it was practical. It did stick with the colors blue and white but instead of the brick formation body armor he had a simple white fabric underneath a long blue trench coat that reached down to his ankles. It was connected over his chest but gradually fell open as it went down, the sleeves ended in crisp cuffs over pristine white gloves. The shoulders of his coat extended nearly half a foot outward and made him appear larger than life, a giant among men. His hair had been cut short and there were only small black spikes pointed back across his head. All in all the man was most intimidating. 

The hand-held in the other man's hands has been activated as his brown fingers tapped out a complex dance across it's interface. Soon he had finished and put the device into a pocket that was attached to a previously unnoticed belt.

Gratz cleared his throat and pointed to the intimidating man who stood next to him, having been signaled by the darker man to continue. _"Admiral Archtura"_ he moved his hand to point to the cop behind him _"Sasha"_ and ending on the darker man pronouncing him _"Raul."_

Gohan tried his hardest to memorize the names, matching their appearance with their name, but realized he would probably forget a few times before they stuck. He looked over at Raul in time to see him press a button on the side edge of the table, as a result a small holo-screen appeared in front of him, expanding until it was around a foot in width and ten inches tall.

For a couple seconds the screen merely remained blank, a light green hue that obstructed his view of the rest of the table. It flickered once and then showed a simple screen, almost cartoonish in it's properties. It showed a picture of him, obviously taken a few seconds ago, and two figures to the left of his. One showed a man-shaped figure flexing and with a halo of ki surrounding him while the other showed someone standing regularly with very little ki surrounding him. He looked at the screen quizzically for a few seconds. When he did not immediately know what to do, the screen changed. It showed the two figures fighting, if you could call it that (it only lasted 3 seconds), showing the flexing figure winning hands down. It then showed his picture hover over each of the figures a few seconds before showing a hand using an index finger to pull the image to one of the figures and then the other. After this short display it returned to the original screen.

Hesitantly, Gohan poked his finger at the screen where his picture was. The picture highlighted it's border in green and moved with his finger. He slowly dragged it over to the strong picture and pulled his finger away from the screen. Immediately it reacted and switched to another choice . . . for some reason, Gohan suddenly got the impression that this would take a while.

A/N – OMG guys I am sorry, if you can ever forgive me please do! I have recently become re-addicted to starcraft along with preparing for my move into a dorm. Anyway this is the longest chapter yet and there is finally some plot development as well as a few new important characters. Please R&R!


	9. Chapter 8: Of Things Remembered

A/N – Hey . . . Long time no see heh-heh . . . . Awww come on! Don't look at me like that. I'm back right? T.T Forgive me? Please?

_'Thoughts'_

"Words"

"_**Other Things"**_

I Don't Own DBZ, DB, Any characters in either of the aforementioned series or anything owned by the Nintendo corporation . . . And I can't remember who owns DragonBall (Z) . . . yeah . . . ON WITH IT!

Chapter 8 – Of Things Remembered

It had taken an hour and a half before Gohan had thoroughly answered every question presented on the screen. The big guy, who acted like he was in charge . . . _Archtura_ or whatever, had left after a short time leaving him with _Raul_, _Gratz_ and spazz- . . . _Sasha_. Gohan didn't understand the relevance of several of the questions, but then again they _had_ fed him so he did kind of owe them his cooperation.

Actually it appeared they didn't speak Japanese at all! Several of the questions showed him something and required him to say the name for what it was in Japanese before telling him the name in their language. He would still find it nearly impossible to carry a conversation but he might be able to get the gist of what someone was talking about through their use of nouns . . . . Trying to convey anything else through pictures wouldn't have worked very well anyway.

When he finished the last question, the last of a series of questions about numbers and counting, the screen disappeared unceremoniously while _Raul_ quickly pulled a small chip out of the table and left to parts currently unknown to Gohan. _Gratz _nodded quietly to _Sasha_ before performing a slight bow in Gohan's direction and following after _Raul_.

_Sasha_ . . . _'Heh! I didn't forget!'_ smiled at him for a moment before motioning for him to get up and follow her. Mentally shrugging, Gohan hopped out of the seat and padded lightly after her as they both went for an exit separate from the one used by _Gratz_ and _Raul_. Gohan walked in what he thought was either a forced or companionable silence a few paces behind Sasha.

Sasha, on the other hand, was somewhat of a nervous wreck. She glanced back covertly at least twice a minute all the while thinking of ways to explain things to the small, yet powerful boy walking behind her. _'How do you explain to a child that everyone he has ever known is long dead and forgotten by all but him?'_ she sighed and kept walking checking now and again to make sure he hadn't wandered off. The only bright piece of news was that she was given several weeks paid vacation in order to get Gohan acclimated to the new environment and lifestyle, Orders that had been handed down from the highest authority on the ship. She sighed once again _'Well, I can bet he's going to end up throwing around lots of unbound Ki when he ends up understanding what I'm telling him . . . Might as well make our way to the converter.'_

They continued walking around the curved hallway for a while longer before they got to a massive opening on the inside curve of the wall. Inside was another elevator; however it was not nearly as clean or attractive as the others around the ship. Bare metal coated with rust was bolted and welded together to form a 30' platform without any ceiling or walls at all. Along the edges were different protuberances to attach bindings to whatever was huge enough to need them. Gohan walked onto the platform and stood in the middle, looking around with mild curiosity. Sasha tapped a large button and also stepped onto the platform.

The ride must have taken a full 20 minutes, even at the speeds they were traveling. When they arrived at the 'bottom' Gohan was half asleep.

The platform shuddered to a grinding halt, effectively waking the young saiyan. The first thing he noticed was that he felt much heavier than usual . . . almost uncomfortably so, he lifted himself to his feet and the feeling almost doubled. He frowned and closed his eyes, using his senses to see if it was affecting his Ki. _'My energy . . . It's like there's a wind blowing it away . . .'_ He shifted his attention to Sasha to see if she was being affected. _'Hmm . . . Neat trick!' _Sasha had lowered her energy levels down to the minimum that would keep her conscious and on top of that was holding it inside her torso so only a very minuscule amount leaked away towards their destination. Her outward appearance changed very little, making her look like maybe she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before, but otherwise unchanged. It took him a few seconds but he was able to configure something similar and gave a sigh of relief, feeling the drain lessen. There was still about twice as much draining away from him as there was from her but he would worry about perfecting it later.

While Gohan was occupied with keeping the technique going both he and Sasha had started walking towards whatever it was draining their energy. The elevator had emptied out into a hallway, however, the hallway didn't last very long before opening up into a giant room, large enough that Gohan noticed that it was harder to slow down than it was to speed up the closer they got to their apparent destination(1), and with a growing sense of unease, followed after his guide.

Sasha, though, seemed to know exactly where it was she was going. After a few minutes of walking towards the center of the room she turned to the right and started heading towards a nearby building within the room. Even though it wasn't nearly as far away as the machine had been it took them much longer to get there. As if the machine at their backs was trying to tug them towards it. When they got to the building she waved at someone through a large window and a door Gohan hadn't even noticed opened up right in front of them, closing after they had gone through. Sasha and the 'guy in a lab coat' had a short conversation and at the end of it the man just shrugged and gave Gohan a wary look before exiting via a flight of stairs going upward. Sasha gave a sigh of relief and motioned Gohan over with her to go through another, much more obvious, doorway. When they went through she hit a few buttons on the console before continuing into the room.

Gohan didn't pay any attention to this however; his entire focus was on the sight before him. In front of him was a window/screen of impressive size, starting a few centimeters above floor level and looming above his head to a height of at least 15 meters and stretching at least double that; it was awe inspiring to say that least. It was what he saw through said opening, however, that took his breath away and slowly, ever so slowly, began to horrify him. At first all he could see was the inky blackness of space, punctured by the piercing light of the stars as Sasha turned off the lights in the room.

Sasha quickly summoned a ball of Ki in her hand . . . only to watch it disappear before it even fully took form. She gave a thumbs-up to the corner of the room and kept a close eye on Gohan as she casually hit a button on a nearby panel.

Gohan started to lean forward to get a better look at a small brown object near the bottom of the screen when it started to accelerate towards him growing larger and larger by the second until it took up over half the screen. It looked familiar to him . . . much of it was covered in blue and much more of it in sickly gray clouds. Gohan had a stray thought that Japan was going to be hit by a typhoon in a . . . few . . . days. It had taken a while but his brain had caught up with what he saw. It was earth, only so much of it had been destroyed that he had barely been able to discern continents. He was worried but still not quite convinced . . . really, it wasn't until he saw the moon that he believed it. . .

Chichi, his mom, had made him study almost all the time. It was only at his fathers insistence that he was given any time to train at all, so his entire life had been, for the most part, eat, study, eat, train, eat, sleep and repeat. At one point Chichi had gotten it into her head that memorizing the face of the moon that always faced the earth, due to its spin-speed, to the point where he could draw it from memory including at least one hundred of the prominent craters that pock-marked its surface. Once he had finally completed that particular task he had immediately forgotten most of it, deeming it, for the most part, useless. Looking off to the side of this odd window-like screen however, some of that knowledge returned to him and he could no longer deny that the brown, red and grey-blue sphere he was looking at was indeed Earth.

'_How could something like this happen?!'_ His brain was working overdrive, trying to connect dots he hadn't even known existed, to form a picture he couldn't currently understand.

_I know Dad got a call a few months before we left . . . he looked worried and had argued with Bulma about something for some time before looking sad and hanging up. He talked to Mom about it for a bit and she looked like she was ready to cry . . . but insisted that she was fine. . . Piccolo was just as severe as always but seemed a little more on edge than he had before. He remembered something Bulma had whispered about the center of an atom . . . except she shortened it and . . . . ._

Suddenly and with crystal clarity the situation of almost half a millennia past made itself known to the young demi-saiyajin. He turned to Sasha and nearly screamed his question at her: "Where's my family!?"

She looked as sympathetic as she could, but that didn't help her to understand what it was he was saying. Gohan saw this and began to cry hysterically babbling questions and pleading in a language that it seemed now only he knew. She instantly hugged him close and tried her best to console the last earthling on the loss of his home and everyone he had ever known. Unknowingly, she too shed a few tears in trying to understand what he was going through. Their excess Ki flowing away from their bodies into the walls of the room, they grieved together for the loss of an entire world to its own warmongering.

(1)The Idea is that this machine is so large and has so much energy within it that there is a weak gravitational force being applied to them. This is partially why it's near the bottom of the ship.

A/N – Again I am so very very sorry for the delay/ hiatus. I will try not to do that again but I can't guarantee it . . . I hope that at least you still want to read what it is I write even if you hate me for the waits I put you through.


	10. Chapter 9: A Tour

A/N - . . . Nothing much to say . . . shrugs

'_Thoughts'_

"Words"

"_**Other Things"**_

I own nothing. NOTHING YOU HEAR ME! And I doubt I could make money with this even if I wrapped it up in weed.

Chapter 9 - A Tour

Sasha woke up first, after all, he was the one who had lost everything, she just had to watch him realize it. She vaguely remembered carrying him up to the infirmary and then trying to leave but being forced into one of the beds right next to his . . . she hadn't been able to complain too much by that point. "Ungh! That engine is a greedy bastard!" she muttered to herself. She sat up and shook her head a few times before looking over to Gohan's bed where he was still curled up in a little ball with a tear escaping his closed eyes every now and again.

Sasha's face fell at that and she shuffled over to his side rubbing his back gently, trying to give him some semblance of comfort in his dreams. It must have worked, if even only slightly, because his body became less tense and the tears stopped. She glanced over at the wall to see that it was early morning according to the clock. _'Damn internal clock! I've basically got a vacation wrapped up in a babysitting job and it still won't let me sleep in!'_

Gohan seemed to be doing better and she saw no reason to wake him so she remade the bed in some semblance of being unused and went to the next room to do her morning routine.

(O,o)

owl-chan says that no one reads DBZ fics anymore . . . that makes me sad T.T

When Sasha got back she was very much relived, for one, she had gotten a clean uniform and had packed her dirty one up to take back to her room and for another, Gohan now looked exactly as any saiyan child should this early in the morning: Sprawled out with at least one limb halfway off the bed, mouth firmly clamped around the pillow with unconscious chewing motions involved and a bit of drool escaping the side of said clamping mouth. She smiled as she walked over and flicked his forehead a couple of times.

Gohan groaned at the sharp taps to his head, he spit out his pillow and glared balefully at the perpetrator before sighing and sitting up and pulling some hair out of his face. Someone had had the presence of mind to take his hair out of the ponytail before laying him down.



Sasha gave him a huge grin before giving her best way-to-chipper-for-this-time-of-morning "Good Morning!"

Even though he didn't understand what the words had meant he got that she was waking him up in an annoying manner, saying some manner of greeting in a ridiculously happy manner and grinning at him like the cat that ate the canary. "Morning . . ." He hopped off the bed and wandered over to the shower room while Sasha, her tormenting complete, went to tell the sleeping nurse on duty that they were leaving.

(O,o)

Since he was staying with her, Sasha figured she would first show him where he would be staying for the next few months, and then from there she could show him the rest of the ship. Really, since the ship was plastered with maps, it was incredibly hard to get lost for very long so she stopped them at the first one and pointed to where her room was. She also used this opportunity to give him the word for map, as well as the word for home and room.

They made a few detours on their way, mostly because Sasha tended to be a little scatterbrained, also because they passed one of the cafeterias.

It was one of the most beautiful things young Gohan had ever seen! The room itself was huge and everything else seemed to try and live up to that image. The tabletops were rectangular and close to one hundred feet long while being around ten feet wide. There were a total of forty of these tables across the back of the room. In the front was a buffet style feast unlike any he had ever seen. Roasted, baked or fried avian, burgers made from some sort of ground meat with any and all toppings you can or cannot imagine, large bones with meat cooked to perfection still attached (1), sausage links galore, huge shish kabobs with all manner of skewered veggies and meat, loaves of bread as large as his arm and he hadn't even had time to see the desert bar yet! Chefs were hustling back and forth from the kitchen to keep the supply stocked as the early rising among saiyans arrived to gorge themselves. Gohan actually pinched his arm to make sure he was awake . . . There was no way this was real . . . . Right?

The next hour or so was mostly a blur of food and not much else. The only thing Gohan was really able to remember was that he really liked the meat was excellent and that whatever else could be said about these people, they really knew how to cook!

Sasha shook her head at Gohan's forlorn expression as they were leaving the cafeteria and they continued to her room, which was quite close to said cafeteria . . . A nice perk to any saiyan I assure you. As they walked together; Gohan was looking around and realizing that there wasn't much to look at in the hallways except the random person they crossed paths with. He was beginning to notice that almost everyone had on the same outfit, save for minor alterations and the emblems emblazoned on them. Once he was able to communicate he decided he would 

find out what all of the symbols meant. Aside from that he was also memorizing where the cafeteria was in relation to everything else.

(O,o)

Sasha's room had originally been intended for two, however, due to not needing as many personnel as missions into space usually required and some well placed bribes she was able to pull a larger room for herself. The room had turned into her sanctuary where she was completely comfortable, there was a medium sized tropical looking plant of some sort in the corner, the center of the room was mostly empty space covered by a massive rug that almost looked like a tapestry. Off to one side there was a bookshelf with a screen on top and a few small shelves stocked with small disks, presumably for inserting into the small screen. Built into the wall next to the bookshelf were several imbedded drawers, only visible from their rectangular outline and the small metal handle in the middle. Across the room there was a desk of no remarkable difference to any other desk save that it was made from some metal Gohan didn't recognize.

She made a grand gesture at the room as Gohan walked in behind her, a proud grin on her face. When Gohan's curious looks around the room weren't adequately amazed she decided that some mischief was in order. With a most decidedly evil grin, she stalked her prey. Gohan didn't even have time to yell when she grabbed him and tossed him at the ceiling. When Gohan, expecting a rather painful return to the ground below him threw out his arms to shield his face . . . only to remove them and open his eyes in wonder as he has simply . . . stopped moving? He swished one hand through the air below him in an attempt to feel that which was supporting him . . . only to feel nothing; it was as if he was flying, but he knew he wasn't. A grin slowly made its way onto his face as he laid back to stare at the ceiling for a few seconds before rolling over, laughing a little at the sensation, and grinned at Sasha, whom had been watching him with the same grin. She motioned for him to come back down and for a moment he was unsure of how to proceed, until he looked at how close the ceiling was and pushed lightly off of it. After a mere foot of slowly floating down, gravity demanded that its rules be followed and Gohan landed on his feet a little harder than he expected, sending him onto his butt. This also had the unfortunate side effect of squashing his tail slightly, leading to his wide eyed, almost disbelieving silent scream of agony. It only lasted for a moment but as Sasha worriedly helped him to his feet he shook lightly with unused adrenaline. When she saw he would be O.K. she gave a small grin and led him over to her desk to sit. She pondered for a moment beside him before making several motions with the general intent of "stay here"; and with that she lightly walked out of her . . . Their room.

(O,o)

Gohan figured she had meant not to wander the ship anymore, which was really just fine by him if there were going to be more people like that other guy. He shivered at the recent memory. However, that didn't prevent his curiosity from provoking him into exploring every 

little thing in the room he could find. There was a small panel near where he had been sitting and so after she left he immediately, and probably against his better judgment, began to examine it. A few switches later and he was greeted by the ceiling, walls and floors all taking on a remarkably realistic likeness of a tropical forest. It didn't take long for him to realize that this wasn't one from earth when he didn't know any of the plants that now surrounded him. The only things that hadn't been replaced by the scenery were the door and the panel he now stood next to. He reached over and hit a small arrow button pointing to the left and was rewarded with a very different kind of scenery. He was now standing atop a massive dune in an apparently endless desert, he could almost feel the grit of the sand beneath his boots. He cycled through a few more scenes before deciding on a grassy plain that reminded him of his home. He sat down on the lush grass and let his mind wander as he looked up at the fluffy white clouds dotting a comforting light-blue sky.

(O,o)

Sasha was worried. It had nothing to do with his fall or that he was again unsupervised, no, the main reason she was worried was because of how little Gohan was acting like nothing was wrong. ONE outburst? His entire family (as far as he knew) and everyone he had ever known or loved was dead and he only broke down once? Something wasn't right . . . and what annoyed her was that she currently had no way of finding out if he had truly healed that quickly or if he was bottling it up . . . more than likely the latter but without communication everything was going to go at a snail's pace. That was why she had left to go get some disks on "Basic Spoken Saiya-Jin" and "Basic Written Saiya-Jin". Not to mention that without communication you couldn't mess with someone's head efficiently.

As Sasha walked back from the library a random thought struck her, after all that work to get her own room, the people in charge had just given her a little kid as a roommate. . .

"SON OF A B-"

End Chapter 9

(1) Imagine a cow's leg and thigh cooked while still on the bone in the style of a turkey leg and you've got what I'm imagining . . . Btw sorry to any vegetarians out there.

A/N – Hope you guys liked this one. The ending was my own poor attempt at humor. For those of you wondering why Gohan isn't a quivering wreak you have to remember why Gohan is so special to begin with, Gohan, out of all the saiyans or saiyan hybrids is one of the few that bottles up all of his frustrations, anger, fear etc until he can release it all on an enemy when the dam breaks. THAT is why he was able to toy with cell, all he had to do was uncork that inner bottle and BOOM, power unimaginable was at his finger tips. Anyway I'll start working on chapter 10 immediately.

Please leave a review? You have no idea how much I get out of such a simple recognition :)


	11. Chapter 10: Closure

A/N – In response to darkmahjong's review: I know the story's moving pretty slow right now but the pace will pick up soon enough. I don't want to leave anything unsaid . . . which is probably a problem but It's the way I started it and it's the way I'll end it. So don't despair, action will arrive soon enough.

I would also like to thank anyone else who reviewed : ) it makes me happy to know people are reading my story. Now, on with the fic!

"Spoken Word"

'_Thoughts'_

"_**Other"**_

Chapter 10 – Closure

Sasha walked into the room expecting to see the dull white walls and her familiar surroundings . . . She didn't quite expect to walk onto a small field of grass with Gohan in the middle on his back. Therefore she can be forgiven for almost dropping the disks she carried, only saving them at the last second by diving to the floor. Gohan, hearing the noise, sat up and after a moment of watching her gather up the disks, walked over and fiddled with the panel until it turned off. Sasha walked over in a huff, depositing 7 disks onto the desk. She grabbed the first disk on speaking Saiya-Jin and pushed it into a small slot on the desk's edge. Thus, Gohan began his foray into the world of new languages.

(O,o)

The next month flew by so fast Gohan really didn't even have time to do much other than study the new language and train to get his muscles back into shape. Not moving for a few centuries meant that he was subconsciously using his Ki to strengthen them during even normal activities.

After the first week he was able to understand about 70 percent of what was said around him. When it came time to train his body instead of his mind he found that he quite enjoyed sparring and learning from Dr. Gratz, who's only real sparring partners were a few of his assistants. Gohan had always heard that you knew when you had a handle on a language when you started dreaming in that language . . . but then again, ever since Gohan had been extracted from the pod, he hadn't had a single dream . . . Which is why, when he finally had his first dream a month and 4 days after awakening in the hospital . . . he would never forget it.

(O,o)

Gohan's body jerked slightly from side to side from his position near the ceiling fighting some unseen foe within his own mind. After about 12 minutes or so this ineffective thrashing stopped and he grew still. . . Sasha slept on a few feet away knowing nothing of his struggles.



Gohan had been fighting Apoulden again, except this time no one was helping him, no one cared if he lived or died. Worst of all, Apoulden wasn't alive, his head was cracked at some unnatural angle and blood poured from his empty eye sockets, spilling all over his twisted and mangled body. Despite all of this he was still several times faster than Gohan and every time he tried to counter attack the giant, Apoulden just shrugged off the hit before continuing the torture. After he was all but beaten, his psyche added in a picture of his mother screaming that it was his fault she was dead, his fault because he didn't study enough. Just as the final blow was about to land the entire scene disappeared . . .

The first thing Gohan noticed was that he had awareness, this was not a dream, not in the general sense anyway. The next was that he was back in the hologram meadow . . . except this was no hologram, it was a memory of a field that sprawled out about a mile away from his house on Earth. He wasn't alone either.

Standing in the field was his father, mother, Krillian and Mr. Piccolo. They all seemed content with waiting for him to notice them. It was almost too fast to see but Gohan damn near teleported over to the group and immediately jumped to give his father a huge hug . . . only to pass right through him and land heavily on the ground.

"Sorry son, we can talk here, but we can't make contact." Goku turned and gave his son a sad smile. "But I'm so glad you survived . . ." He stopped and wiped away a few tears. Chichi fell to her knees and sobbed quietly, but with a half smile on her face as she looked at her son. "My . . . Baby's a-alright" Goku kneeled down and hugged his wife close to him as he too, looked at Gohan with moist eyes.

Goku took a deep breath to steady his emotions before continuing. "I suppose you're probably going to know more about it then I will, if you don't already, but I wasn't human . . . Whatever I was . . . am . . ." he shakes his head and continues "whatever they are you are also . . . at least half anyway" he gave Chi-chi a one armed hug as she started to calm down.

Through all of this Gohan had stayed silent, truly he had wondered why everyone had accepted him so quickly, at least now he had an answer. His eyes were darting around drinking in their appearances, trying his best to memorize their very presences. Goku gave a small smile. "We can't stay for long, it took nearly all of my power and King Kai's to break through the veil so we could see you again . . . it will probably be the last though." After hearing this, Gohan could be silent no longer. "Why! You did it once right? You're the champion! You're my dad! You're Goku." Tears began leaking from his eyes. "You can do anything . . . anything! . . . Don't leave me . . ." He was on his knees now, a fist-full of grass and dirt in each hand finishing his rant in a whisper as his vocal cords constricted in his throat. However it wasn't Goku's voice that answered his pleas', but a deep authoritative one belonging to Piccolo.

"Hey kid" he waited patiently as Gohan's head slowly rose to meet his gaze. "You already know that if he could do that then he would . . . He'd probably try even if there was the 

slightest chance of it working." He kept his eyes locked with Gohan's but continued in a much softer voice. "But if he did, would you do anything else while alive? Or would you await your death with eagerness and sleep most of your days away, just hoping to catch a glimpse of one of us?" Gohan's eyes dropped at the accusation . . . and in shame as he couldn't really say he wouldn't, not with any certainty anyway. His eyes were beginning to dry and he looked up once more just in time to see a ghost of a smile grace the severe alien's face. They continued talking for about an hour, and at the end of the visit, everyone was smiling.

"Make friends, never stop learning, always do what your heart tells you is right and always remember, we love you" His father's voice echoed as the meadow blurred into whiteness and the whiteness blurred into focus, showing the pale ceiling under which he rested.

Not bothering to wipe his still-wet cheeks we whispered to the ceiling. "I'll make you proud . . . I promise."

A/N – Did it pull any heart strings? Gohan finally has some closure and can now continue on with his life and the great things that will happen in it. Sorry again for the long departure but that scene was a little hard to write and let's face it . . . I'm a bit of a flake, I write some then leave it alone for a few months and then write as much as the rest of the story put together . . . Anyway, please review and I'll try to fix my flakiness . . . as much as is possible anyway.


	12. Chapter 11: A Job?

A/N – Not much to say at this point . . . I'm now finished with this arc of the story . . . which I will now call the "Retrieval Arc". So now that Gohan has been saved and almost back to normal (he can never really be normal in any sense of the word again after all of this happening to him) he can start making a life for himself amongst his saviors and brethren. Don't be expecting frequent visits from anyone in his past, I won't lock it in place by saying you'll never see/hear them again but then again I wouldn't hold my breath either. Thank you for your reviews, I loved all the attention chapter 9 got : ) and even though it took me a while to get the next chapter up I just wanted to let you guys know that it is very much appreciated . . . . Wow. . . I suppose I'll shut up now and actually write the story neh?

"Spoken Word"

_'Thoughts . . . and maybe telepathy if I include it'_

"_**Speakers . . . also anything loud"**_

Chapter 11 – A Job?

After the meeting, Gohan refused to call it a dream, he began to take an active role in his life. No longer would he merely go through the motions of sparing with the good doctor, instead he would begin thinking of combinations and strategies to pull out a victory . . . something he had still yet to archive even though he was actually participating now . . . but the matches were now almost dead even.

Gratz wiped a hand across his brow, pulling away the drops that threatened to blur his vision, a slightly manic grin on his face as he looked at his opponent. Who could've guessed that even after all that time in the pod, Gohan would recover THIS quickly. He had originally tried to convince Gohan to join him in order to speed up the process of recovery . . . but even with the exercise Gratz had thought it would take close to half a year to recover his full fighting capabilities. Truly, Gohan was quite the amazing child. However, it wasn't so much his strength or form that impressed the doctor, the thing that most impressed him . . . was the potential! In just the past week Gohan had already mastered the basic forms that branched off into the various fighting forms employed by the Royal Guard and was well on his way to integrating it into the forms he already knew. Gohan had explained that the form he was using was one he learned from his father and his father's master . . . though there had been a long period where Gratz had been completely stumped by Gohan's description of a turtle until he had shrugged it off as an unimportant but necessary tid-bit of information. According to Gohan, who was now technically the master of the school, the form concentrated mostly on defense and powerful counters, which he demonstrated perfectly. In exchange for the information on Gohan's school Gratz explained where the style he practiced and was currently teaching Gohan originated.

Gratz cleared his throat briefly before beginning his story. "The first thing you should understand is that our culture was, and still is, almost completely based around combat and martial arts, given our species unique talent for it. That being said, about two hundred years ago the current King Vegeta along with several of his most talented and trusted generals decided that they should take it upon themselves to create a standardized martial art for the Imperial Army to use. Of course, any art they were to design was only to be accepted if it were as close to perfection as possible." At this Gratz gave a little shrug and rolled his eyes at the seeming arrogance of the statement making Gohan crack a smile. With a grin of his own he continued the story. "Well as you can imagine, creating an entirely new school of martial arts was actually quite difficult. It took them nearly thirty years between the six of them to finish. There was a catch though, even though they each were impressive fighters and geniuses in their own right, even they couldn't come up with one style to trump all others. So instead they created three separate styles, each with different advantages and disadvantages that were covered by the other two styles. They were named: The Imperial Hammer, The Royal Shield and The Majestic Glow." Gratz glanced over to see Gohan's face was lit up like a miniature sun.

"Those . . . are the COOLEST NAMES EVER!!" Gohan was fairly vibrating in place with excitement, if the styles themselves were anywhere near as cool as those names then he would have to learn everything he could about each and every single one of them.

"Glad you approve." A wry smile pulling at his lips. "Unfortunately I only know the basic tier, you will have to find someone else to teach you the intermediate level and then choose which of the three you want to learn and find a Sensei for that particular style as well. You'll have plenty of time for that later though, for right now, let's make sure you've mastered this level." That being said they continued their spar.

Gohan was becoming more active in other aspects as well. After he was deemed as having a firm grip on the language for his age he was allowed to move around the ship without an escort. One of his first stops was the library, where he instantly began digging up as much as he could on the new technologies around him.

In-between reading about all the things he had missed in the last four centuries and training his body back into shape as well as learning a new martial arts form, he was fast becoming friends with Sasha (or Spazzy, but only in his head). He learned that she was the oldest of her siblings and was going to turn 21 in about a week. Her younger brother was younger than he was and didn't seem to have much in the way of fighting capabilities, but was happy just the same. His name was Mathis Kiare. Gohan strongly suspected that he was a temporary replacement for Mathis while Sasha was away from home, but then again it didn't seem to be hurting anyone and there wasn't much he could do anyway so he decided not to worry about it too much.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:(O,o):.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

Sasha's party was completely unexpected, evidently there wasn't too much of a celebration among saiyans when their day of birth rolled around. When there had been only a few days left before the special day Gohan had made his way down to the kitchen and asked to speak with a Chef. The cook he had addressed was slightly confused as to why the child they had picked up (gossip spread like wildfire around the ship about him) was asking to see one of the head chefs. "What do you need to talk to him about, eh?" No need to bother the busy man if it wasn't all that important.

Gohan knew his request would go over well, a gut feeling based off of the entire species fixation on food. "I was wondering if he might like to help me set up a party." His assumption was dead on. The cook grinned and turned off his stove while yelling for someone else to watch and make sure the food didn't burn while he was showing Gohan to the office.

The cook, after bringing him to the door, gave Gohan a light slap on the back and headed back down the stairs while yelling back at him. "Get me invited to this thing too, eh?" Gohan nodded before realizing that not only would he not be able to see the nod, but that he was already out of earshot as well. Shrugging, Gohan pushed a button next to the door and it slid open with a slight _whoosh_.

The room was small, almost cramped, but adequate for the needs of the type of office it was. The main attraction was, of course, the man sitting at the desk in this small room, the man who before he even looked up, sighed heavily before asking. "What is it NOW?" before looking up and seeing the slightly fidgety Gohan standing in his doorway. "Oh . . . .Goham right?" Before motioning for Gohan to enter the room.

Gohan took a few steps before the door did another one of its _whooshes_ as it closed. "Actually it's Gohan, close though." He used this opportunity to take a better look at the man. "Hey! You're that chef who had all the food when they asked me all those questions!" Gohan exclaimed with a much happier expression on his face. Somehow merely by recognizing the man it had settled any of Gohan's doubts about whether or not this would work.

The man tapped his desk once to save the document he had been reading and looked up at Gohan with a smile. "Yeah, that was me. Name's Chef Narbe, just call me Kuchen though." He gave another grin to lighten the tone of what he said next. "Glad you could visit but unless you need me for something I've still got to plan for dinner tonight . . ." His voice trailed off.

Gohan nodded and got straight to the point. "Sasha . . . Um, Lieutenant Kiare, is turning twenty in a few days and I was wondering if it would be alright to ask of your services to set up a party?" He ended in a nervous questioning tone.

Kuchen looked at him a bit oddly before querying. "Why?" He leaned forward, his urgent paperwork forgotten for the moment in the face of, from his perspective, such an odd request. As an afterthought he gestured for Gohan to take a seat in front of him.

Gohan, starting to feel self-conscious of being the only earthling on the ship, started playing with the armrests of the chair he currently occupied. "Well . . . On Earth . . . whenever someone's birthday came around . . . the family would have a small party to celebrate . . ." he hesitantly explained.

Kuchen sat back in his chair, an odd expression on his face. "You mean . . ." He shook his head a little before continuing. "Families would celebrate the fact that none of them had died?" He raised an eyebrow and continued. "Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing that no one had died that year but doesn't that strike you as just a little bit morbid?" He propped his head up on his elbows and awaited Gohan's response.

Gohan's face was twisted a little bit as he thought about it. "What does Mor . . . Morbid mean?" Gohan stumbled slightly over the unknown word before looking up to Kuchen's mildly surprised face.

"Oh . . . That's right, you've only just learned the language, I apologize. Morbid is an adjective that describes something as . . . being a little too interested in death . . . to the point of having an unhealthy mind . . . No offence, it sounds a little stronger than how I meant it but that's the general idea. It seems like maybe this custom arose because there was so much death going on around them that to have someone survive the year was truly something to celebrate." He looked to Gohan to see if he had understood and also to see if he could confirm his hypothesis.

Gohan had indeed understood the explanation and was rather irritated that such an (in his opinion) awesome reason to party and receive gifts was being questioned. He nodded briefly and stood to leave.

"Hey hey hey! Don't leave yet." Kuchen half-stood in his own seat in his haste to keep Gohan with him. "Just because you won't find many people willing to celebrate "Not Dying" doesn't mean that we can't find another excuse to party . . ." Gohan sat down again and had the beginnings of a grin on his face. Kuchen grinned back as he continued. "Lt. Kiare has helped you out quite a bit right? I'm sure you could have a thank-you party that just happens to fall on her birthday, neh? Sound acceptable?"

"Does this mean we can have the party?" Gohan looked up hopefully.

Kuchen scratched the back of his head. The kid was too damn good at winning people over. ". . . I could probably pull some strings to make it happen . . . Do you think you could do me a favor in return though?" Kuchen's face had settled into the expressionless mask he used when conducting business deals. Gohan's expression seemed to ask him to continue but otherwise he remained silent. "Our ovens, stoves, basically everything that needs power in the kitchen is run by the warriors when they aren't training. There is a small room below the kitchen that serves as a generator where they go and force energy into a machine that converts it to be used by us up here." He gestured around him. "Apoulden, even though he was one evil son-of-a-bitch was still a good battery . . . and now that he's gone we're having some trouble picking up the slack. I want to know if maybe you would like a job. It wouldn't be too time consuming, you would be given a schedule of what meals you would supply energy for and would come in for your shift and push as much energy as you can do without into the converter. Just make sure you're fresh when you come in and everything else pretty much takes care of itself. So what'dya say? You'll get your party and all the food you need to supply it, I won't have to worry about draining the warriors dry of their energy and you'll even get a paycheck that you can use when we get back to Vegeta." Kuchen leaned back, his eyes on Gohan's.

Gohan waited a few moments, turning the deal around in his head and seeing if he could spot any holes. He trusted the Chef but one could never be too careful. After a minute of silent deliberation Gohan decided that the deal was a good one and nodded once. "When can I start?"

A/N – You get a cookie if you can find out what the Chef's name means and what language it's in :) Happy Hunting lol. Oh, and as for why Gohan asked what a word means . . . There isn't a reason for him to know such a word yet. He's only been speaking the language for a month or 2 and I'm tired of always seeing the main character immediately understanding complex words without ever being exposed to them.

Please review guys. 6 on chapter 9 and only 2 on chapter 10?

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